


Those Who Play With Fire

by Wix



Series: The Roles We Play [4]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Not Canon Compliant, One-Sided Attraction, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), give tony a break, not team Cap friendly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:20:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 35,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24125776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wix/pseuds/Wix
Summary: It's their first mission together - what could go wrong?
Relationships: Tony Stark & Avengers Team
Series: The Roles We Play [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1048469
Comments: 1690
Kudos: 2253
Collections: I love you 3000, Works worth reading a million times over, ellie marvel fics - read





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Heads up to all new readers - reading the previous installments is a MUST to properly understand what's happening in this story, just a heads up!
> 
> This is a repost since the takedown, but with a few edits. Hope you all enjoy the next story in this verse!

It’s sad that it’s not really as odd as it should be that the mission hasn’t even technically started yet, and already A.J. wishes that it were finished.

He could try to lie to himself and pretend to chalk it all up to it only wanting this whole thing with AIM to already be over and done with, but he knows the truth. He knows that it has nothing to do with the enemy waiting for them at their eventual destination, and everything to do with the ‘team’ littered around the landing pad area.

There’s an obvious rift that’s already made itself known, and its something that A.J. can already foresee causing him problems in the near future. Or maybe not so much just a ‘rift’ as it is also mixed in with an obvious sort of bullying tactic that the previously rogue Avengers used to use on him back when he was still Tony in their eyes whenever they were annoyed with him. All of ‘Team Cap’s’ members are standing off to one side of the plane, getting their luggage into the bins and pretending that nothing is amiss while Loki stands off on the other side. Clint has already thrown his duffle bag onto the belt and he’s standing next to Natasha as they pretend to have some kind of conversation about the mission while sending random glares and disgusted looks over to where Loki is standing.

Loki, who is very much not Tony and isn’t responding to their tactics like he once had, seems to either not notice or not care. A.J. feels that he leans more towards the second one since he doesn’t doubt that there’s very little that gets past Loki’s notice, and the Asgardian trickster god just keeps nodding along with whatever Rhodey is telling him. A.J.’s pretty sure it’s some kind of riot act reminding him of what’s acceptable and what’s expected and what will immediately get him booted off the mission and thrown back onto Thor’s team.

As funny as it is, A.J.’s pretty sure that only the ‘Thor threat’ is really making any headway on actually keeping Loki in line. He can’t help but notice though how Loki seems to keep sending little smirks and glances over at Wanda through it all. Wanda, who has clearly noticed them and is clearly taking them as some kind of insult by how tightly her whole body is wound and how her fists are clenched and A.J. almost wants to sigh. That’s not a good first sign for team cohesion.

It is odd to see Wanda outside of her usual attire. The self-styled ‘witch’ has ditched her signature red and black color combination and has opted to wear something that’s softer with creams and blues. A.J. doesn’t doubt that it was a choice to attempt to distance herself from her costumed persona, and he notes how she keeps sending glances at Steve as though she expects him to do something about Loki’s silent taunts.

Steve is however, strangely uninterested in the Loki debacle playing out around him. A.J. notices how he keeps scanning the hangar like he’s waiting for someone to appear, and whoever it is doesn’t seem to be manifesting and Steve’s face looks like it’s warring with itself on whether it should show disappointment or sadness. Which of course means that it falls somewhere in the middle like a kicked sort of puppy. A kicked puppy on steroids with a metal dinnerplate that he likes to jam into people’s chests.

…apparently still not over it. Good to know.

In the end though, the wave of mental exhaustion that hits A.J. when all their eyes turn to him and light up makes him have to seriously fight against the sudden desire to say ‘Nope, Fuck it’ and climb into the plane and leave everyone else behind and just do the mission himself. It’d probably go smoother than whatever clusterfuck that’s going to go down with the whole group attached to it.

“A.J.” Rhodey calls out to him, waving him over and A.J. goes willingly while dropping his own duffle amongst the others. The rest of the group gathers around. “Remember your missions.” Rhodey says to them all. “A.J. is on point and any and all mission and team issues go through him, _not_ through anyone else.” Rhodey gives Steve a sideways glance to let everyone present know exactly what he means and what he’s talking about. “A.J.’s mission is AIM, and you’ll be his backup; but also remember that your mission goal is his protection. Cover his back in the field and listen to his orders, simple enough.” Rhodey glances down at the papers in his hands before he hands them off. “These are your plane tickets, hotel reservations and mission briefings. The jet will drop you off at the airport and then the mission will be live. Any last minute questions?” Clint raises two fingers lazily to draw attention to himself.

“I’m all for getting out of this Compound,” Clint starts, reaching out and taking the pages handed to him. “But is it really wise sending A.J. on this one?” A.J. tries to ignore how they all glance in his direction again.

“Meaning?” Rhodey asks.

“Meaning that he may not be a face fully known about town yet, but this is AIM we’re talking about. With the history that Stark and AIM have, do you really think that they’re not going to notice his kid walking onto the scene?” He clarifies and he gets a few nods from the others.

“Clint’s right, A.J. walking into AIM’s backyard will be like Christmas came early for them.” Steve agrees with the archer and Rhodey shakes his head.

“We’ve already considered that.” He says, motioning to Loki. “That’s why Loki’s agreed to use his magic to assist with disguises for the more potentially recognizable members of the team.”

“Who?” Natasha asks and Rhodey motions to Steve.

“Both A.J. and Rogers.” He replies and Loki does a tiny incline in agreement when they all glance at him.

“That doesn’t change the fact that A.J.’s not field ready yet.” Natasha points out. “He hasn’t mastered the armor and he’s still in training with his powers.” She says and A.J. almost sighs at how the rest of the group nod along with her and her ‘concerned’ tone.

Who knows, it might actually be concerned. After all, A.J. isn’t Tony Stark which means that they might actually feel some empathy or compassion or concern for his heath and wellbeing.

“Nat’s right.” Clint adds to the dialogue. “The Council might think that a technopath could be useful on this mission, but if A.J. doesn’t have full control over his abilities then is it a good idea to send him in on something like this? Something so closely tied in with Stark?”

“The Council didn’t pick A.J. as the lead on this solely for his technopathy, and we didn’t approve it because of it.” Rhodey informs them. “He was tapped because of his hacking skills outside of his abilities. Plus, his handle on his powers is more secure than you seem to believe, and the suit isn’t cleared for immediate deployment on this mission. Should it escalate to that level, another team will be sent in and yours extracted.”

“Most hacking I can do without my abilities.” A.J. feels the need to assure them. “They’re just…consider them an additional bonus boost if needed.”

“This will be one of the first times that he’ll be active in the field, so you’re all expected to be on your best behavior and step up should something go wrong.” Rhodey says.

“Who’s his backup?” Steve asks and A.J. hopes that he hides the cringe at the question. “If A.J. goes down in the field, who steps in for him?”

“If A.J. goes down in the field, you’ve failed your mission parameters.” Rhodey points out. “If that occurs though, you’re to immediately inform the Avengers and pull out. However, we have discussed the possibility that unforeseen events might prevent extraction or immediate backup, and as such A.J. has chosen to have Romanov as his second in command.” Hearing it said aloud like that makes some distant part of A.J. feel sick. There was once a time when Tony had trusted Natasha as his right-hand woman, his second in command and she’d stabbed him in the back and chosen Rogers to the destruction of them all. She was the only acceptable option though of the choices available. Putting Steve up as it was never going to happen, and would have had the negative option of backsliding in the team understanding of hierarchy. Clint was never an option due to Loki’s existence. Loki and Wanda were both too volatile to be left in command if anything went belly up which meant that the only option left was Natasha.

“Not Steve?” Wanda asks, still poking at it, and Rhodey shakes his head.

“No, not Rogers.” He answers her firmly and he holds out her papers to her and she takes them with a frown at being denied more information. “Okay, let’s get this done as cleanly and as quickly as possible.” The obvious dismissal is clear and the others wander off and go to board the plane now that the meeting is finished. “Are you still sure you want to do this?” Rhodey asks as he hands him his paperwork. “There are a lot of things that could go wrong. I can go, I don’t mind going.”

“I’m sure that we need to weed out AIM.” A.J. replies to that. “Wherever they may have dug themselves in, and we can’t have you off the roster right now with Strange and Danvers away. Besides, I was always going to have to go back out into the field someday.”

“Just…just be careful okay? Don’t do anything rash or foolish and watch your back.” It’s clear that Rhodey doesn’t trust the group with the task and A.J. gives him a smile.

“I’ll do my best.” He promises him. “And I’ll be sure to check in with the Network as often as possible.”

“God, I feel ridiculous.” Rhodey says with a small huffed laugh. “I feel like I’m sending you into battle alone and I know that I’m not and I know that you’re more than capable…but I just don’t like it.” A.J. gives him a smile at that. “Just remember, Vision and I are only a call away if you need us and FRIDAY is on standby with the suit if _anything_ goes wrong. Also, remember that you’re the boss. Don’t take any shit from them.”

“I’ll remember that.” He replies. “Now, we’ve got a plane to get in the air and an AIM bug to squash. Wish me luck.”

“Good luck.” Rhodey says back instantly and he claps a hand on his shoulder for a moment, before A.J. sees the look in his eyes and A.J. moves forward to give him a quick hug that Rhodey returns tightly.

“I’ll be okay and I’ll be back before you know it.” A.J. promises him and Rhodey nods before letting him go and A.J. boards the plane, turning around as the doors start closing and he waves goodbye to his best friend. The doors have barely latched shut before Clint and Steve approach him.

“You sure you’re up for this, kid?” Clint asks and A.J. nods.

“Not a kid remember, and I wouldn’t have agreed to it if I didn’t think I was.” He tells him and the two men share a look with each other. “What?”

“I know that the Council tapped you for this,” Steve says carefully. “But if you feel like-”

“The Council didn’t ‘tap’ me for this. Not in the way you’re thinking at least.” A.J. interrupts. “Did the Council bring the mission to the Avengers attention? Yes, they did. Did they recommend that I be on this mission? Yes, to that as well. However, you’re ignoring the fact that actual team missions aren’t approved by the Council.”

“They’re not?” Steve asks surprised and confused and A.J. wishes that he wasn’t as unsurprised as he is that Steve clearly _still_ hasn’t read all of the Accords.

“No, they’re not. Missions are under the purview of the Avengers Leadership. The Council sent in the mission and Rhodey, Strange, Britain and Marvel all came together and discussed their thoughts on it. Only at that point was the mission truly offered to me to accept.”

“But I thought that the Council decided missions?” Steve argues.

“No. They’ve got a lot of authority within the team with things like hierarchy, training requirements and setup as shown by that horrible ‘team building exercise’, legal issues and whatnot. The Avengers themselves decide which missions to take and how they’ll be undertaken.” A.J. looks at them. “They’re also the overseers of new additions to the Avengers lineup and probationary status which is why your group has been uncharacteristically overseen by them. Once you’re given full team status, you’ll probably not hear much from them.”

“Do you really not want to be a team lead?” Steve asks, picking up on the ‘full team status’ part. “I mean, I know that your father and us have our history but to hold yourself back-” A.J. shakes his head.

“I’m not ‘holding myself back’. Maybe someday in the future? Sure, it’s entirely possible that I might change my mind, but for right now? I’d rather not have the extra responsibility on my shoulders when I’m still trying to figure myself out. The Council and the Team Leads agreed and the offer was dropped.” A.J. shrugs. “But _I_ opted to accept this mission, even knowing who I would be going with. No one pushed me into it.” There’s silence from the two men for a brief moment before Steve speaks again and A.J. entertains himself by putting up a countdown timer of the time between now and when they’ll land at the airport.

“…I’m surprised that Tony didn’t make an appearance.” He says and instantly A.J. knows who it was that he was waiting to see in that hangar. “I mean, it’s your first mission and it’s AIM. Surely he could deal with seeing us for a few seconds if only to wish you luck.”

“He did wish me luck.” A.J. replies. “He spoke with me earlier.”

“But he didn’t drop by?” Clint points out and A.J. gives him a _look_.

“He _can’t_ stop by right now, remember?” He asks them with a firm – and slightly accusing – tone to his voice and he watches as the two of them flinch as if they’d forgotten all about how ‘Tony Stark’ was still in need of serious medical attention somewhere in the world. “However, he made sure that I had everything I might need and he’s on call in case I need him. Now we should start preparing for the mission, excuse me.” A.J. says, walking past them and into the area where the others are waiting and he approaches where Loki is leaning up against the wall. “Alright, you said that you had some ideas for hiding our identities? Now seems as good a time as any to break it out.”

“I do.” Loki says, stepping forward into A.J.’s personal space with a smile on his face as he’s done every time they’ve interacted since his return to the Compound. He holds up his hand and snaps his fingers, and a pair of glasses materialize into his hand.

“Glasses?” A.J. asks and he doesn’t mean to huff out an amused sound. “Is the plan seriously to pull a Clark Kent?”

“Clark Kent?”

“Superman…it’s a comic book about a superhero who hides his everyday identity with just a pair of glasses.” A.J. explains before he waves it off. “Ignore me, how do they work?”

“Surely you know how glasses work?” Loki says with the same grin as he reaches up to put them on A.J. He pulls them away when A.J. just goes to take them from him and A.J. sighs at the arched eyebrow that Loki gives him and drops his hands to allow the other to do it himself. He notes how the Asgardian seems to glance over his shoulder with a kind of smirk as he slides them onto his face before looking back at A.J. “They’re imbued with a perception spell.” He explains, adjusting them for a second before he’s satisfied with whatever he sees and drops his hands but doesn’t step out of A.J.’s personal bubble. “They’ll disincline people from recognizing any similarities. I’ve used similar spells multiple times, they…how would you say it? Ah yes, they ‘get the job done’.”

“Sounds good.” A.J. says, opting to be the one to take the step back. “And you have a pair for Rogers as well?” Steve steps forward at his name and Loki manifests a second pair and just tosses them to Steve with a kind of bored dismissal and Steve catches them against his chest.

“I’m still confused why _he’s_ here.” Clint can’t seem to stop himself from saying as he motions towards Loki.

“Because he’s a part of the team for this mission.” A.J. tells him firmly.

“Someone’s going to notice him.” Clint says. “Glasses or no glasses. He kind of made an _impression_ the last time he was here.” Loki just gives Clint the single most unimpressed look that A.J. thinks he’s ever seen outside of Pepper dealing with board room members, and A.J.’s sensors alert him about Loki’s magic in the area as the Asgardian’s form shifts.

What was once a dark-haired Asgardian Frost Giant Prince shifts into a dark-haired woman with sharp features.

“You were saying?” ‘Loki’ asks, and it’s funny to hear the same bored tone come out of a different sounding voice. Even if he hadn’t known before that it was Loki, A.J. thinks that with that tone and that look he’d know in an instant.

“Loki’s a shapeshifter.” A.J. reminds them. It’s safe to say that he has that handled.” Clint doesn’t look pleased at the answer, but a glance from Natasha shuts him up before he says anything else. “Now, lets run over how this is going to work, because once we get off this plane we won’t be crossing paths fully again until the resort. Let’s be sure that everyone knows what to expect.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again you all! Thank you for the amazing reviews! I'm thrilled that even after all this time this series is still gaining traction!  
> Here's the next chapter! [ I'm trying to learn posting-spacing. I'm sure most of you remember how bad I am at that ;-) ]

They’re all on the move the second that the jet lands at the airport. This part of the mission is simple enough at this stage. They’ll disembark and separate at this point, Clint and Nat’s team as well as Steve and Loki’s team shadowing A.J. and Wanda until they’re all able to meet up at the resort hotel and discuss the next part of the mission out of the sight of the public. Luckily, they have a decent amount of time to get away from their current location and get to their next flight before it starts boarding, but as with all things, it’s safer to get there as soon as possible the to putz around and hope for the best when the time comes.

Clint and Natasha are off the plane first, even if A.J. had voiced his thoughts that it was a little unnecessary to have them go forth as a sort of scouting party and to start a surveillance around the boarding area prior to A.J. and Wanda coming onto the scene. But as they’ve been quick to remind him, they’re tasked with his safety and they’re going to take it seriously, no matter what part of the mission they’re at. There’s a reason they’re all going separately after all, even now something could go wrong and Steve agrees with the two ex-SHIELD agents when they offer up the option of going first. A.J. had seemed to decide not to pick that battle with them and had just nodded, allowing them to go first. It’s impressive how quickly they blend into the crowd the second they hit it, visible for a moment amongst the various civilians and then vanishing like they were never there.

A.J. and Wanda are the next group to go join the ranks of the bustling airport patrons, and Steve and Loki follow after them to keep them in sight.

_“Wanda, until we get to the hotel, you’ll be A.J.’s main backup in case something happens.” Natasha reminded the young girl and Wanda had nodded with a sort of heavy seriousness in her eyes that Steve doesn’t think he’s ever seen her have before._

_“I’ve got him.” She promises them all and Steve believes her. In fact, with that look in her eyes when she says it, he feels a little bad for any fool that might try to put their hands on the young Stark while she’s on the case._

The memory is still fresh in his mind as the two youngest grab their luggage and make their way for the screening process. Steve sees how Wanda reaches over and takes A.J.’s hand in a clear attempt to not lose him in the crowd as they depart. Loki and Steve are the last to get off the jet, bringing up the rear. Steve tries to ignore the wish that’s already forming in his mind about Loki and how he wishes that the trickster didn’t have to come along for this mission with them. The way that Loki grins at him tells him that Loki knows exactly what’s going through Steve’s mind and his (her?) response is to wrap an arm in Steve’s with an innocent looking smile.

Steve has to fight back the urge to yank his arm away and scrub it down with Lysol, or possibly even just declare it a lost cause and cut it off and let Loki keep it if he’s going to be so enamored with it. However, Steve keeps his thoughts to himself as they pass through the airport checks and make their way for the gate.

There’s still plenty of time before they start boarding and Steve settles himself into one of the uncomfortable chairs where he has a good view of where A.J. and Wanda are at, and he inclines briefly to Nat when he sees the two of them in a corner with a similar sort of vantage point. Steve’s a little impressed that somehow they found a way to have a cup of what seems to be coffee or something with them. A.J. seems engrossed in the book in his hands, while Wanda keeps sending glances at it before turning her attention back to the magazine in her own hands and flipping through the pages before glancing at A.J. again and repeating the pattern.

“Relax Captain.” Loki says as he sits down and reclines in the chair. He looks a lot more comfortable than these chairs allow and Steve secretly hates him for it. “You’ll draw unwanted attention with the constant bodyguard vigilance routine.”

“Some of us take our jobs seriously.” Steve tells the other, but he tries to relax anyways. Loki’s not wrong after all, as much as it pains him to admit that. “In theory, something could happen.”

“You’re acting like you’re the one who has never done this before.” Loki scolds him and Steve gives him a glare.

“We’re supposed to be showing that we can get the job done.” He says, barely holding in the curt tone. “Hyper-vigilance doesn’t seem like a bad thing to have.”

“Ah,” Loki says with a slow grin. “But are you being ‘hyper-vigilant’ because of the mission…or because of young Anthony?”

“His name is A.J.”

“I am well aware of the moniker that he’s chosen to go by, but I do believe that it’s supposed to stand for ‘Anthony Edward Stark Jr.’.” Loki throws back at him. “Tell me Captain, does the name Anthony bring up memories regarding his dying father that you’d rather bury out of sight?”

“Leave it Loki.” Steve snaps, losing the battle with himself and the raven-haired trickster chuckles softly.

“Is this what we have to look forward to?” He asks, his tone dripping with mockery. “This sort of pathological need to be overprotective of a boy that you have no claim to? And one that wants less than nothing to do with you?”

“A.J. is one of us.” Steve says and Loki clicks his tongue now in an amused sort of fashion.

“But not in the way you wanted, not in the way that you’d hoped.” He says and Steve glares at him. “I heard how you wished for him to join your team. I’m sure that you wished for him to champion you back into the hearts of the masses that you lost with your previous antics…and I heard how he turned you down.” Loki makes a fake sad sound before chuckling. “Although I am curious about one thing Captain. What do you see when you look at him? A second chance? Or perhaps a replacement for the father you killed?”

“Tony’s not dead.” Steve growls and he has to keep himself from gripping too tightly to the fragile plastic armrests. “And we’re not doing this, and certainly not here.”

“You know he won’t do it.” Loki says and he sounds almost pitying, continuing on like Steve hasn’t said anything. “All this effort that your little group is going to go through to show him just how _safe_ he is with you, and yet the lot of you ignore every sign that he’s giving you that tells you just how he feels to be surrounded by the traitors who betrayed his father.” Steve has to take a deep breath and he wonders what Loki hopes to get out of this conversation other than just pissing him off.

“We’re not traitors and we didn’t betray Tony.”

“I’m sure Stark would beg to differ.” Loki retorts easily. “Have you seen him lately? What has he said about it?” Steve knows that Loki’s just being a douche, but Steve’s really fighting the urge to punch him once in the jaw. “I wonder what he’d have to say about his old teams sudden, and completely altruistic I’m sure, concern for his progeny.”

“I’m sure he’d be happy that someone is looking out for his kid.” Steve throws back and Loki’s lips twist into a mocking grin.

“Oh, I’m sure.”

“Drop it Loki.” Steve commands and Loki holds up his hands in surrender before pulling a magazine out of nowhere. The title is one that Steve recognizes. It’s one of the old ‘Where is Tony Stark? Captain America a Murderer?’ magazine covers that permeated the media until Tony’s press conference and A.J.’s introduction into the world; and it takes everything in Steve not to rip it out of the other man’s hands and tear it to shreds.

There’s blessed silence for a while though, and Steve keeps a good eye about before Loki lets out an exasperated sigh and flips a page.

“Let it be Captain. There’s no danger here.”

“Like I said before, I like to be vigilant.” Steve says and Loki just flips the next page.

“He’s fine. Even if there were danger here, I sincerely doubt that the little sniffing witch would allow it to get past her and to him. Let alone myself or your other compatriots. He is quite secure. Save it for when it’s needed.”

“Sniffing?” Steve can’t help but ask and Loki nods, not looking up.

“Isn’t that the Midgardian phrase? When someone is practically throwing themselves at an uninterested party over and over again?” Loki takes a moment before one of those green eyes glance up at him. “Don’t tell me you haven’t seen it? How she looks at him? How she touches him each chance she gets? How her attention goes to him the moment he enters a room? How she keeps trying to create a common ground between them?” Loki shakes his head with a small chuckle. “Don’t worry, you’re not the only one. He seems rather oblivious to it as well.” Loki glances over at where A.J. and Wanda are. “I will not deny; the witch has excellent taste.”

“A.J. and Wanda have a lot in common.” Steve says to that, staunchly ignoring Loki’s last comment, but still filing it away to warn the others about so that they can keep an eye on the Asgardian and his interactions with A.J. in the future.

“Of that I highly doubt.” Loki replies. “I’ve seen no similarities to them, and noticing things about people is what I do.” Loki looks back up at the two youngest Avengers. “I’m sure that she’s imagining that their story will be like some grand Romeo and Juliet tale. He, the son of an evil tyrant and her, the innocent victim of circumstance; coming together despite it all for a happy little ever after.” He chuckles in amusement. “Too bad she’s…how do you say it? Barking up the wrong tree?” Loki shakes his head and looks back down at his magazine. “Honestly, I’ve not seen someone less interested in a member of the fairer sex throwing themselves at them since I had to watch the Lady Sif do it for centuries to my brother.”

“If Wanda and A.J. decide to embark on some kind of relationship, that’s their business and no one else’s.” Steve says and Loki just snorts and flips the page like Steve’s said something hilariously funny.

“If that ever occurs Captain, then I will truly fear that Ragnarök will have come upon us.”

+++

 _\- We’re approaching the hotel now. -_ A.J. sends over the Network as the resort comes into view from the cab’s windows. Wanda’s sitting next to him and looking out of the window over his shoulder with a kind of fascination about the area around them. A.J. almost wonders what’s so interesting outside of his window that she couldn’t see outside of her own, but he pushes the thought away.

 _\-- Understood. Keep us updated on our progress –_ Vision replies over the connection and A.J. sends what he hopes is a thumbs up emoji or something similar as Vision disconnects from the Network.

_\- FRI? Have the others arrived? -_

**_\-- The room registered to Romanov’s and Barton’s covers has been checked into. There is no check-in for Rogers and Mr. Loki yet. –_ **

_\- Alright, when we all get checked in, please send a green light to Rhodey to let him know. -_

**_\-- Will do Boss. –_ **

A.J. backs out of the Network as the car comes to a stop and he smiles as he pays the driver and grabs their luggage. He can’t help but stare at the idyllic setting and wonder what on earth AIM could be doing in a location like this. He also can’t help but wonder what horrors they’re going to unearth regarding them, and he can’t help but feel a little guilty. If he’d done better with cleaning up the Killian mess then maybe this would be happening right now. Or who knows, maybe it would. Rhodey would argue that it probably still would.

He’s slightly startled out of his internal thoughts when an arm winds around his and Wanda looks up at him from where she’s now up against his side. The easy casualness that she’s been showing and acting with towards him is very in character for their false identities, but it’s still making A.J.’s synthetic skin crawl. He barely refrains from pushing her hands off of him. _Barely_.

“Don’t worry.” She says to him softly, misunderstanding the look that must be on his face. “You’re going to do fine. We’ve got your back.” She assures him and A.J. almost finds it funny that she’s trying to comfort him about the mission seeing as he’s been on more missions than all of them combined…although not in this form, and he’s supposed to be green about all of this so he gives her a small, unsure smile and leaves it at that.

“We should get checked in.” He says and she nods as they head inside. He’s grateful when he’s able to pull his arm away with a kind of careless move when he’s required to sign the forms and get the keycards. The check in goes off without a hitch and A.J.’s hoping that Loki’s Clark Kent glasses are doing the trick because it’ll be a quick end to their mission if AIM picks him out of a crowd before they even get a chance to snoop around. He drops off the bags in the room, and it’s nice but he can’t help but feel his stomach drop at the sight of the large, single bed that seems to be mocking him.

Couldn’t they have pretended that they were siblings or something? Or really, really religious and required two beds instead of one? He’d pull out all of the old memories of Mass that he used to go to with his mom if it got him out of this situation. Unfortunately, it doesn’t and a second bed doesn’t miraculously materialize.

“I’ll take the couch.” He says after a pause before he motions to the bed. “You can have the bed.” He doesn’t expect an argument towards it. It seems only rational and yet Wanda shifts on her feet and tugs at the bottom of her sweater in that nervous gesture that she does where she frays the hems of her clothing. He wonders if she’s as uncomfortable with the idea of sharing such close quarters with a strange man that she doesn’t know as he is sharing it with her.

“…if you wanted to…” She says after a bit. “We could share it? I mean, we’re both adults, right?” _Not according to Rogers._ A.J. can’t help but think as she presses on with the single worst idea he’s ever had posed to him and he’s had Justin Hammer throw out plenty before. “Sharing a bed isn’t really anything scandalous if we don’t make it so.”

“Consider it my way of being gallant.” A.J. says, stomping down on the revulsion he feels at the thought of _sharing a bed_ with the witch. If she knew who he truly was, she’d have gutted him the second she saw that they were sharing a room, let alone one with only one bed. “I don’t mind the couch. It’ll be fine.” There’s a knock at the door and he’s so grateful for the reprieve and he opens it slightly before stepping aside and letting the other two groups into the room. “Good, we’re all here. Let’s get set up.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So much love for all of you! Thank you for all of the reviews, they're amazing and I love each and every single one of them! 
> 
> Here's this chapter for you! Please enjoy!

Thankfully, Loki’s fake sweetness and over the top ‘affections’ stop the second that they step inside A.J.’s and Wanda’s room. Steve’s trying his best to prevent Loki from knowing just how much the Asgardian is actually getting to him and how he’s been mentally counting down the amount of time it’s going to take before he finally just snaps and throws a punch at the other man regardless of the form he takes. Steve has no doubts that Loki has a similar tally counting up in his own head though, so Steve stomps it down by sheer force of will since he doesn’t ever want to play into Loki’s hands and certainly not just for Loki’s amusement.

The room that they walk into is exactly the same model as the one that Steve and Loki checked into, and Steve’s figuring that it’s also the same room type as Nat and Clint’s since they’re all on the same floor. He has to admit that he’s a little surprised about it. He didn’t realize that he sort of figured that Tony would have done something as foolish as renting his son the largest and most expensive room in the hotel to host his son in, and that by doing so he’d risk blowing their covers with his obsessive need for excess and his need to drag everyone else around him down into it. Steve figures all it means then is that Tony didn’t have a hand in this part of the mission planning, and that someone else handled all of this like Rhodes or maybe even A.J. himself and that they reigned Tony in and prevented him just throwing a credit card at it.

 _“It’s Stark’s true superpower, you know other than being such a massive dick that the bad guys go insane at the sight of him – throwing money at things.”_ Steve remembers Clint joking about it once, or maybe a few times in slightly different contexts and Steve can’t help but chuckle internally at it still. Doesn’t mean that he doesn’t miss Tony though, or Tony’s methods. They always did seem to work in the end, whether they liked it or not. Maybe they shouldn’t have given him so much hell over it.

“A.J.” Nat’s voice pulls him out of his internal thoughts as she goes over to where the young boy is pulling out the computer from his bags and she leans her hip against the desk that he’s starting to set up at. “Not to be ‘that’ person, but just for future knowledge next time don’t just open up the door when someone knocks without checking who is outside. It could have been anyone, you’ve got to be aware at all times and don’t let your guard down even if you know that we’re supposed to be coming by.” She says in the same tone that she takes when teaching Wanda the tools of the trade and Steve finds himself nodding along with it. She’s right, he should have asked who it was before he just opened the door to let them in.

“…I’ll keep that in mind.” A.J. replies, looking down at his computer screen as it boots up and Steve wonders if he’s embarrassed about making such a silly rookie mistake so early into the mission.

“Hey, it’s no sweat.” Steve’s quick to reassure him. “We’ve all made stupid rookie mistakes time and time again, but that’s how you learn.” A.J.’s fingers pause against the keyboard, but he doesn’t say anything to Steve’s words before he just starts back with whatever he’s doing on the computer.

“I’ve confirmed our check-in with Vision already.” A.J. says, taking a firm tone and Steve feels the edges of his lips pull up into a smile as A.J. tries so hard to take on the persona of ‘calm and assured team leader’. “At this point, FRIDAY should have registered both of your groups check-in’s as well.” He starts to go over the data they have at that point, of the patterns that tipped off the Council and where he’s going to be focusing his search perimeter on. He seems to zone out a little at one point, almost like he’s distracted as he just keeps talking through the various points of the ‘mission’ and it’s something so hilariously reminiscent of his father that Steve feels a pang of nostalgia hit him deep in his chest.

It’s never been clearer before, then watching A.J. at the computer and talking while messing around with the computer programs, that he’s Tony’s son.

“I’m going to go grab a snack.” Clint says after they’ve been waiting around for a while, sliding off of the bed and jumping to his feet. “I saw a vending machine. Any takers?” Steve and Wanda shrug as they try and find something to watch on the television.

“You know what I like.” Nat says from beside where A.J.’s working. Steve can’t tell left from right on anything the young genius is doing but Nat probably does and she’ll be the best to aid him. She is his second in command after all. Even Tony used to see how useful and necessary Nat was to a mission. He should have listened to her more frequently, hell if he had back in Germany and had followed her lead like he had been demanding for all of them to do with his, than none of this would have happened. Clint just gives Nat a thumbs up about what she’s said.

“Chocolate.” Wanda throws up and he gives her a thumbs up too.

“Pretzels if they have them.” Steve says. “Chips if they don’t.”

“Got it. A.J.?” He calls out and A.J. turns and looks at him like he’s surprised for a moment. Steve wonders if he’d been so engrossed in what he was doing that Clint’s words caught him off guard or something. It makes Steve huff out a little amused sound.

“I’m sorry?” A.J. asks and Clint motions to the door.

“I’m going to go get something from the vending machine. What do you want?” He asks and A.J. just stares for a few moments before he seems to come out of wherever his thoughts have led him and he shakes his head.

“Um no thank you, but thanks…for offering.” A.J. says as he turns back to the screen and Nat gives A.J. a look.

“Even if you don’t eat it, it might be good to have here in case you change your mind.” She says.

“Or you get the munchies.” Wanda offers up and Nat nods. A.J. takes a deep breath before he shakes his head and gives them a friendly smile.

“Really, it’s okay. I can’t have that stuff anyways.” He says and Nat gives him a curious look.

“Can’t have it? Why not? Dietary things? Allergies?” She asks.

“If you’re allergic to something, we should know.” Steve says. “Just to make sure there’s no accidents.”

“I can’t eat processed foods.” He answers them after he makes a few keystrokes. “Some of the chemicals that they add to foods for preservation and things, I can’t have. Boring, I know, but it is what it is. Don’t worry about it, I’m not hungry.” Clint gives A.J. a look at those words that just screams pure ‘Dad Clint’.

“When’s the last time you ate? I didn’t see you grab anything at the airport.” He asks and A.J. seems to register the concern that Clint’s giving him and there’s that look on his face that he gets sometimes. This one though, this one asks ‘why do you care?’ in a way that’s more confused than accusing and it pains Steve to see. Has no one actually taken care of the kid before? Has anyone ever taken just five minutes to make sure he’s looked after? Steve knows that Tony couldn’t have, Tony tended to forget to look after himself and certainly wouldn’t have been able to care about anyone else that wasn’t mechanical.

It makes Steve wonder about A.J.’s upbringing. Did he have a family that actually looked after him and didn’t just throw money at him and leave him to his own devices?

“…I’m good.” He assures after a brief pause before he focuses on his task, too focused to be pulled back into the conversation anymore. Tony would do that too sometimes. Even though in Tony’s case it was more often than not because he’d stuck his foot in his mouth and had pissed someone off and had wanted to pretend that he was ignoring the fallout. Clint doesn’t look mollified by A.J.’s assurances, but he nods and leaves. Loki lets out a huff from where he’s sitting on the chair at the other side of the desk from Nat.

“What about what _I_ want?” He asks in a tone that’s clearly just meant to be annoying and everyone ignores him. Maybe it’s good that they have A.J. here and not Tony, because Tony and Loki were two peas in a pod and would have gotten along swimmingly while angering everyone else around them. “I have been curious about something.” Loki presses on. “Your abilities, I’ve never heard of such a power. Although Asgard does lack technological trinkets like your planet drowns itself in. What is it like?” Steve almost tells A.J. to not tell him, it’d be better to not give Loki any ammo when it comes to the team, but truly Steve’s curious too.

“What’s using magic like?” A.J. fires back instead of answering, not looking away from what he’s doing and Loki leans his head back till it rests against the wall behind him.

“Like…using a muscle that doesn’t really exist.” He answers after a bit and A.J. spares him a quick surprised look even as his fingers keep typing. “It’s like being a sculptor working with endless clay and you have to determine how much you need and what shape it has to take. Sometimes it’s a masterpiece, sometimes it’s just a mess; but it’s always a joy.” Loki finishes and A.J. gives the Asgardian a strange look that Steve can’t place, but he doesn’t like how casual it is. A.J. should never forget that Loki is nothing more than a snake in the grass just waiting to leap out and bite them when they least expect it. A.J. motions with one hand towards the television that they’re watching.

“Think of it like millions of televisions playing different channels all at once.” He starts to explain and Steve tries to imagine it. “Sometimes it’s images, sometimes it’s noise, and sometimes it’s just numbers. Endless strings of data going by and you’ve got to navigate it all and not get distracted by it.” A.J. seems to take a moment to think about it. “It’s like touching a battery with the tip of your tongue and like feeling that you’ve gone on a three-day programing bender in the dark and you haven’t seen the light of day and your brain is tired from staring at the screen for too long. It can be a bit much.”

“Sounds unpleasant.” Loki says and Steve agrees a little with the statement but A.J. actually lets out a soft huff and shakes his head.

“You think? I’d argue it’s just the opposite. Being able to interact in a way that was impossible before. Feeling those barriers and boundaries fall away so that new conversations can take place with old friends.” He gets the tiniest, softest of smiles for a moment. “It’s worth the strain, every single time; but I guess it’s hard to explain it to someone who can’t feel it. It’s hard to make them understand.”

“I understand that much at least.” Loki seems to agree.

“I know what you mean too.” Wanda offers up from her place on the bed. “It’s the same with telepathy. It’s like hearing whispers and conversations all the time. Sometimes you’ll get pictures or maybe just emotions but it’s all happening at once and it can be a lot.” Loki looks at Wanda with a bored glance and A.J. nods to what she’s said and they all fall quiet for a bit.

“I have wondered something.” A.J. asks, breaking that silence and Loki motions with his hand to continue, just assuming that A.J. is talking to him, although in this case Steve will give that the young boy is. “Magic seems to be common in Asgard, and yet the practice of it seems uncommon?” Loki snorts like A.J.’s just said something entertaining.

“Asgard is built on physical battle prowess.” He replies. “As such, magic is looked at as a nifty extra to a weapon, but worthless in practice. What does it matter how powerful of an illusion you can create? What glory is there in not killing something with your own two hands?” There’s so much distain in Loki’s voice at this point, and it’s clearly a touchy subject. “It’s all just parlor tricks and childish games. It will always fall in the presence of a _true_ warrior.”

“Huh, sounds like the jocks win no matter what world they come from.” A.J. says with a shake of his head and no one brings it up further. “I suppose I’m not surprised. The Council put Rogers with you because they felt that technopathy couldn’t actually stand up in a physical battle. Physicality seems to be all people look at in these kinds of situations. A misunderstanding that whoever hits the hardest, wins.” Steve doesn’t get a chance to say that isn’t the only reason. Steve is more than just his strength and the Council knows and appreciates that. A.J. for all of his potential is still practically a civilian and throwing him out into a mission with someone like Loki as his backup would have been just asking for trouble.

“Even after what you did with the barrier?” Loki asks and A.J. gives him a sideways glance.

“I don’t think that would have helped my case, considering the state I was left in afterwards.” A.J. says and Steve wonders what they’re talking about that it makes Loki make a face like he’s displeased with the reminder.

“Barrier?” He hears himself ask aloud and A.J. pauses almost like he’d forgotten that the others were still in the room or were potentially listening to the conversation. “Do you have the ability to make barriers too?”

“What? No.” A.J. says. “He was in a containment cell with several defensive programs. I just…stepped in to prevent an incident.” Steve thinks about that time that Rhodes rushing by and punching him in the jaw and it all makes so much more sense. He’d assumed Tony had been involved because of how Rhodes responded, but it being _A.J._ made just as much sense.

Maybe he deserved that punch. He hadn’t meant to prevent backup from making it’s way to A.J. if the kid was fighting alone against Loki.

It takes Clint a long time to return to the room, and when he comes back he tosses the offerings at everyone before he goes over and drops the small container of fruit on the edge of the desk next to A.J. and the boy looks at it surprised.

“You said nothing processed, right?” He asks. “There was a small snack shop and they had those.” A.J. reaches out for it slowly before looking up at Clint with that strange look again. Like Clint’s done something that doesn’t make sense and isn’t computing in A.J.’s mind.

“You went out of your way for this?” He asks softly and Clint just smiles at him.

“Of course I did. We take care of our own. It was no problem.” He says and A.J. just looks at the fruit container before he nods once and turns away from them to go back to the computer. Steve notices though how he doesn’t start typing. He’s just sitting there with his hands resting on the keys but not actually doing anything. Loki seems to be focused on A.J.’s face and Steve wonders what he can see there. Nat slides down to be at eye level with A.J. as she reaches out and touches his arm.

“You okay?” She asks and A.J. seems to tense up at her touch, but he just turns to her and nods with a friendly smile that Steve thinks reminds him of one of Tony’s media smiles. The ones he used to use after a hard battle before he’d been able to settle into medical with the rest of them and had to hide the damage before prying eyes.

“Me? Yeah, I’m fine.” He says. “Almost done for the night, not much more I can do. We’ve got to let the programs run. I was just running through everything and making sure I hadn’t overlooked something.” It sounds honest, and maybe Steve’s trying to paint A.J. with the brush that was Tony’s way of dealing with the world because he almost calls him out on lying. But maybe he isn’t, maybe he really was thinking and stressing about the mission and they’re taking it out of context and putting it up against something that has nothing to do with what he’s actually thinking.

“Okay. Let’s let them run then.” Steve says. “We could watch a movie. Wanda just found the Matrix.” He offers and he’s proud of himself by how A.J. stares at him before snorting and hiding an amused smile behind his hand.

“As long as it’s the first one.” He says as he takes the container and pops off the lid. Wanda moves over a bit to make more room on the bed but he just shakes his head and stays in his seat. All in all, it’s a great step forward, the way they’re all able to relax and just enjoy each other’s company. Although at one point Loki reaches over and starts picking through A.J.’s fruit and the brunet gives him an amused sort of glare but doesn’t actually stop him.

Steve makes a mental note to have a talk with A.J. about keeping his guard up around Loki the first chance he gets, but for now he wants to just enjoy this hard won moment.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone's safe and healthy! Here's the next chapter for you all!

Honestly, at this point he’s starting to get too tired to be surprised anymore. He’d known of course that going on this mission with his old team was going to undoubtedly be an exercise in patience. He’d figured that it’d either be a giant migraine or a huge clusterfuck, he’d thought that those two options were really the only possible scenario to take place. Yet he’s finding out once more that he’s misread the situation between them. Apparently, there was a third option available: it could be heartbreaking.

These days it’s not like A.J. hasn’t been made aware of the depth of the old Avengers lineup’s hatred of him in his previous form. It’s like he can’t sneeze without them jumping over themselves to hand him a tissue and saying a comment or two about how evil his ‘father’ was. Sure, they stayed around back then, even as they made sure that he knew that while they were a ‘family’ that it was only Tony who needed them while they didn’t actually need him. It was a lie that A.J. can see for what it was now. A kind of open door that required only him to struggle to come through it over and over again without one piece of action on their parts for him.

Once upon a time, A.J. might have said ‘how could he have known that it was wrong?’ after all he’d been raised by Howard and his drunk abuse and Obie’s constant back and forth trick of making Tony constantly feel like he was walking on eggshells. How could he have seen the Avengers for what they were back then when they fit into the empty spots those men had left behind? Now though, now he wishes that he’d remembered back then that his family was never Obie or Howard, it was always Happy and Pepper and Rhodey and Harley and Mama Rhodes and Peter and Vision and FRIDAY and the bots. He thinks he would have saved himself and a lot of innocent people a lot of grief if he’d remembered that.

He’d do well to never forget it again and let these people back in. Those holes had finally scabbed over and no matter how many times the ex-Avengers team of his scratched and pulled at the healing wounds, he wasn’t going to let them try and climb back into them.

That doesn’t change how being smacked in the face over and over again the disparities between how they treat A.J. with how they’d treated Tony still hurts.

This time, the disparity had started with the plane ride over and the airport. A.J. had almost felt smothered by their obsessive need to ‘protect’ him, and he couldn’t help but think how these were the same people who had once not even taken five seconds to pick up the phone and give Pepper _condolences_ when the world thought that Tony Stark had died from the Mandarin’s attack on his home. It continued on through Barton though, as it usually did. The archer has always been the first to drag Tony through the mud, or to make cruel and spiteful ‘jokes’ at his expense. Tony had given up at one point trying to ask him to stop when Clint had taken to referring to Tony as a ‘delicate little snowflake’ after he’d done so and all of the others would immediately leap to Barton’s defense saying that it was just a joke and that Tony should act like the adult that he was supposed to be and let it go. That not everything needed to be about Tony and what Tony thought or how Tony felt.

Now though, now Clint doesn’t look at him like he’s scum, now he looks at him with the same gaze that he looks at Wanda with. Like A.J. is somehow some green kid that needs his guidance and protection – which is such a level of deluded bullshit that A.J. doesn’t know what to do with it or how to make it go away. Once upon a time, Clint’s ‘snack runs’ would have consisted of him ‘borrowing’ Tony’s wallet and coming back with half of the vending machine for everyone. Well everyone but Tony. Clint always joked that the vending machine didn’t stock caviar or the tears of the working man so he couldn’t get anything for Tony from it. So showing up here, with that carton of fruit and knowing that he’d made the decision to go out of his way to get something that A.J. could eat so that A.J. would be taken care of even in the most basic and pathetic of ways…it was cruel.

Heartless and cruel, because it proved one thing. That the group always knew how to include a Stark. They’d just decided not to include _Tony_.

A.J. had thought that was enough pain for one night though. It was still the first day and truly how much worse could it get? He honestly doesn’t know why he doesn’t just expect it at this point, but it happens anyways. They’d decided to have a kind of impromptu movie night and watch The Matrix of all things, which was so strangely funny to A.J. considering that he’s now a human mind plugged into a machine and he just hopes that one day he’s as cool as Trinity, but the easy atmosphere had led him to make a dire mistake: he’d opened up conversation with them.

He knows why he did it. It was the part of him that was trying to be rational about it all. It was the part of him that said that learning how to have them in the area and how to work with them would only benefit him. The part that said that he’d have them in his sphere for the rest of their lives and that learning how to not be affected by old memories of a time before this incarnation would be best. So learning how to hold a simple and polite conversation with them seemed reasonable.

Of course they’d made him regret that decision.

“So what did you think Rogers?” A.J. asked once the movie had finished up. “Did you like it?” The Matrix had been on their ‘Avengers Family Movie Night’ docket for a while now, right after Star Wars but they’d never managed to find the time to get around to watching it. He finds that he’s rather curious to know what Steve thinks of it. Steve just gives him an amused smile.

“I’ve seen it before.” He answers and A.J. pauses, because that’s not right. There was an agreement about the movies on the list. Steve had promised not to watch them without Tony present so that Tony could see how he responded to them.

“…you’ve seen it before?” He repeats and Steve just nods.

“Yeah. I like it though. So I don’t mind watching it again.”

“I thought that…” A.J. starts and he cuts himself off but it’s a second too late. He’s already said too much and Steve and the others are interested in maintaining this ‘good conversation’ between them.

“You thought what?”

“Oh…I just thought that it was one of those movies that were on the whole ‘movie night’ list that you guys had? I could have sworn I saw that list once before. It’s just odd, I figured I would have heard dad mention how you felt about The Matrix.” He says and for a brief moment there’s something that looks almost contrite on Steve’s face.

“Yeah, well you know how busy Tony is. Didn’t really feel like bothering him with stuff like that.” Steve says.

“Besides, do you know how annoying it is to watch a movie with someone staring at you instead of the screen?” Barton adds on and A.J. almost wants to point out that that’s what _he_ just did. He watched Steve for a while before he got bored with the lack of responses – now he knows why there weren’t any – and had taken to watching Loki and answering any questions about the world that the Asgardian magic user threw out. “It just made it less fun.”

_“It just made it less fun.”_

“So how many movies on the list have you seen?” A.J. asks against his better judgement. He’s wondering what the answer is, hoping really that it’s only one or two. Maybe five. He can give five. Hell, he’ll give ten. Ten times when the team was supposed to come together and enjoy each other’s company and be a fucking family like they claimed. Ten times he can forgive. He might have seemed crazy busy ten times and they might have felt that bothering him during those times would be too much. Ten. He can give ten.

…please don’t let it be more than ten.

“I’ve seen them all actually.” Steve says and just like that – crushing disbelief. All of them. _All of them_. When did they even find the time to watch all of them? How often were they going over to Steve’s apartment or Natasha’s or Clint’s safehouses or Sam’s house to watch that list? That list that Tony created. That list that they promised to watch with him. That list that he’d often mentioned and just got mumbled agreements and promises for a later date because they were all so busy? Brief math that he wishes his mind didn’t do tells him that the answer had to be at least once a week. Once a week when they all got together and laughed and had ‘family time’ and left Tony out in the dark and the cold and never once thought anything about it.

He’s not sure the emotions that rush through him at the realization. He does know he’s getting rather tired of these realizations pretty damn quickly though. Half of him wants to flip a table and start yelling. The other half just wants to make them all leave and curl up in bed and just call today quits.

He settles instead on a calm, if not a little bit hurt, silence.

“Good to know.” He says, pushing the words out of his mouth to avoid any of the ‘is everything okay A.J.? Why are you so upset that we keep shitting on your dad?’ questions. “I’ll consider you up to date on any cultural references then.” Steve just chuckles and nods at that with that sunny smile of his and A.J. has never felt the urge to punch him in his fucking teeth so bad since he got this new form. He briefly appreciates how at least he’d leave a mark if he succumbed to the need. Maybe even giving the other a broken tooth or two with this new body’s capabilities. It’d be worth the Cradle visit later he thinks and that’s honestly a dangerous thought to have.

“Tony was often very busy A.J.” Natasha says, clearly understanding something about what’s just gone down and A.J. turns to her, and he doesn’t know what to do with the feeling that rushes through him. For the first time, he feels hate. Disgust and rage and _hatred_ for this group of liars and backstabbers.

“Yes he was.” He agrees. “Running over a dozen companies and SI’s R&D and singlehandedly caring for the Avengers missions and equipment will do that.” A.J. says in that calm tone. “However, I happen to know that he always made time for people who were close to him. You know, if they bothered to pick up a phone and _call_.” He looks at them sitting across from him and they don’t look guilty. “Actually, I think he would have appreciated the break that it would have given him, to go and watch a movie or two with his team. His _second family_.” He slips a little there. How that dig slips past his lips and into the room where he can’t take it back. He finds he doesn’t really want to though. If they’re going to shit on who Tony was, then A.J.’s going to start making them realize how shitty they actually were. No more Mr. Nice Guy. “We’re done for the night though.” He says, cutting off anything that Steve was getting ready to say with his sad eyebrows. “We’ll meet tomorrow morning. Hopefully we’ll have a starting place to begin our search for AIM’s hideout or what they’re potentially doing here.” He stands and makes his way to the door. “Natasha, with me please.” He says as he tugs it open and steps out into the hallway. Natasha follows behind him and doesn’t say anything until they get to one of the empty rooms on the floor and A.J. pauses for a brief second before the little red light turns green and he pushes open the door and steps in.

“That’s useful.” She says and he nods.

“It can be.”

“You wanted to talk to me?”

“I do.” He says and he turns to look at her. He’s not pretending to be ‘A.J Stark’ anymore. He’s their leader and he’s annoyed. “We need to discuss something that occurred earlier tonight.”

“If this is about the movie night-”

“It’s not.” He says. “This is about team dynamics. When you arrived at the room, you expressed a concern in my actions.” He reminds her and she nods.

“We all slip up A.J. I was only trying to help.”

“And I’m not saying anything about that desire. I’m only bringing up how it was followed through.” He says firmly. “If you have a concern about how I am leading the team, or with my actions on this mission or any missteps that I may or may not have made, then you are to come to me _privately_ and discuss it with me then. Declaring it in front of the whole team undermines my authority and abilities and fosters an atmosphere where others might be lead to question my actions at a later time.”

“I just wanted to bring up how dangerous it was to just open the door.”

“I was well aware of who was outside the door. Just as I am well aware that this room has no occupants nor will the system allow anyone to check someone into this room while we are using it. Just as I know that during the time it took for us to leave my room and come here that the security cameras on this floor were on loop as they will be again when we exit and go to our respective rooms. Just as they were when you and Barton as well as Rogers and Loki exited your rooms to come to mine.”

“I didn’t mean to upset you; I was just trying to help.” She tries again. “You’re new to all of this. We just want to make sure that your first mission goes smoothly.”

“Appreciated, but ultimately not your concern.” A.J. replies in that firm tone once more. “Your concern is to be ready to go if the situation turns into a fight and to hold down the fort until the Avengers teams approved for active combat arrive. Until then, you and the rest of the team are on standby.”

“It doesn’t mean that we can’t help with the other parts of the mission. More eyes and more hands on the problem isn’t a bad thing.”

“It is when it’s unsolicited help that comes in the form of undermining the person actually in charge of the situation. Haven’t you heard of ‘too many chefs in the kitchen’?”

“We’ve been in more kitchens than you have. If you want to talk about us respecting you, shouldn’t you be respecting what we bring to the table too?”

“Let me be clear Ms. Romanov.” A.J. replies to that. “Your part in this mission has nothing to do with AIM. It’s not why you’re here. If you feel that you cannot manage this mission with those constraints, then please tell me now and I will have you returned to the Compound posthaste.”

“We were just trying to help.” She says. “There was nothing meant by it. Every mission has its own learning opportunities. If you don’t want us helping you out with them, just say so.”

“Ms. Romanov you need to remember this: I am your _leader._ I am not your protégé.” He tells her. “Be assured, if I need extra assistance, I will ask the appropriate people for it.”

“A good leader learns from their team A.J. We’re just trying to help you.”

“You’re not my 'team'.” A.J. replies to that and she looks at him like she wasn’t expecting him to just flat out say it and cut her off at the knees. “You are additional protection added to this mission to soothe the Council’s concerns about sending a Stark in against AIM. Trust me though, if the day ever comes when I have my own team, I will be sure to remember that piece of advice.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, some of the joy that comes from writing self-righteous and over the top depictions of a character’s characterization is the constant feeling of: 'Are you fucking kidding me right now Steven? Seriously? Really? That’s the hill you want to die on? Oh, okay then. Go for it. That’s just…yup he went for it. Oh my god he made it worse….he’s making it even worse. Someone stop him.' 
> 
> Needless to say, I wrote this chapter and just shook my head at the character ‘insights’ the whole time. It was actually really hilarious and fun to write. Kinda cathartic when you actually deal with people like this in real life and you can just see the ridiculousness of that level of bullshit thinking. 
> 
> Also – I love how all of you seem to know exactly where this story is going, and yes you’re absolutely right. Buckle in! They didn’t hear a damn word he said. Rogue Hivemind Activated!!! Rogers Woe-Is-Me and I'm-So-Righteous Internal Monologues Confirmed!!! Let’s see what we get!

The absolutely worst thing about this mission and the last few weeks of interacting with A.J. Stark isn’t what one would expect it was, and it’s not even what Steve once thought it might be back when he learned who A.J. truly was. For a brief moment, Steve will admit to worrying that A.J. would just be a carbon copy of his father, complete with the overbearing ego and constant need to pretend that he’s the victim in a scenario that he undoubtedly created. No, what’s worse is the implications behind the reactions that they see from the young boy in response to the situations and experiences that he’s having with them. 

Right from the start, A.J. had shown himself to be a little quieter and a little shyer than most of the other heroes on the Avengers lineup. He seemed always willing, and almost determined at times with how quickly he seems to chart an exit from a situation and practically flees from any potential conflict, to disappear into the background and to push any attention away from him. Steve’s wondered before about his upbringing, and with each piece of information that he gets that paints the picture of who ‘A.J. Stark’ is, he finds himself wanting to track down the Stark senior and shake him hard while he demands answers. 

It’s easy to ignore some of A.J.’s quirks. Steve figures that they’ve come from a lifetime of having to smother himself and his brilliant mind in order to hide his true identity from the world. As ‘Tony Stark’s Illegitimate Son’, it must have been complicated for him to truly open up and trust people, to interact and engage with them with this horrible secret of his parentage hanging over his head. Steve can’t imagine what it must have been like to constantly see Tony’s antics on the news or splashed across every single magazine and to know that person was your father. A father who lived his life ‘out in the open’ with his ‘I am Iron Man’ bull and yet couldn’t be bothered to recognize or acknowledge A.J. until he had need for him as his stand-in heir. 

There are moments when he laments that Howard is gone and that he never got to meet his grandson. He thinks that Howard would have liked the kid. He knows that Peggy would have. She would have taken him under her wing so fast that Tony’s head would have spun, and that was before she undoubtedly laid him out to pasture for what he’s done to his own kid. 

There are warning signs that Steve’s noticed when it comes to A.J.’s responses to certain events and he doesn’t doubt that the others have noticed it too. How A.J. seems to take a moment before he speaks, almost like he’s weighing his words before they leave his mouth and the potential consequences of them. Steve’s noticed how A.J. sometimes seems to tense up whenever anything happens, almost like he’s constantly walking on eggshells and doing everything in his power to make sure that they don’t break. He’s clearly holding himself back, from the world and from people who might actually care enough to make it past his walls. There’s no arguing that there are walls there, giant things that keep them all from seeing more of the other sides of A.J. That same soft side that was out with Vision and that picnic. The silly side that came out with Bruce when they were waiting for Loki to arrive. The respectful and trusting side of him that came out whenever Rhodes was in the area. Steve knows that they were on the right track earlier with the fruit cup fiasco, and something about it makes Steve think that for all of Tony’s moaning about how terrible of a father Howard supposedly was, Steve would say that if there was ever evidence of a Stark that showed signs of abuse he wouldn’t say that it was Tony, he’d point to A.J..

And honestly, it really just makes Steve want to help him all the more. Howard was a good friend of his, taking care of his progeny is something that feels like it’s Steve’s responsibility now. 

Seeing how A.J. responded to someone going just a little bit out of their way to make sure that he had food makes Steve want to punch a hole in the wall. A.J.’s confused and slightly unsure response about what Clint did has raised all of the red flags for Steve, practically screaming in his ear to stop and take notice. That something so basic could obviously unsettle him and make him unsure how to proceed is a horrifying thing to behold, considering what it might mean about his caretakers before they got here. Did they give him hell because of his allergies? Did they make him feel like asking someone for something specific to what he needed was out of line? 

If they did, then they better hope that the Avengers never find out who they are because Steve has no doubts that Nat and Clint and Wanda will be right behind him backing him up when he made sure that they knew that A.J. was one of them now and to never try and bully him again or they wouldn’t like the consequences. The Avengers took care of family after all, and Steve’s willing to wait it out for the moment that A.J. finally understands that simple fact. 

Thinking of family taking care of their own though…

“Loki.” Steve says, falling into his Captain America tone and demeanor to show that he means business. “I don’t know what you’re playing at, but you’re going to stay away from A.J.” He says and Loki barely glances up at him to acknowledge the command.

“That seems rather irresponsible of you to say Captain.” Loki drawls. “Am I not also here for young Anthony’s protection? Staying away from him seems to contradict my orders.”

“We all know that you don’t give a damn about being an Avenger.” Clint snaps. “You’re just playing around, stringing us all along until we lower our guard and then you’ll betray us. Don’t think that we don’t know what you’re up to.”

“Oh no, you’ve caught me.” Loki says and his voice is dripping sarcasm. “You’re absolutely right. How could I have been seen through, and this early in the game? Curses. Foiled by such _upstanding_ citizens. However will I recover from the shame?” Loki’s shifts his attention to his nails as he says it, no longer even bothering to look at them as he mocks what they know to be true.

“If you’re here for revenge for New York, then you come at us. We’re the ones who did it. You leave him out of it.”

“Honestly Captain. If I _were_ interested in getting back for that ploy, then young Anthony would be _exactly_ who I would go after, and it’s because of moments like these. Letting me know how personally you’d take it if something happened to him is not exactly the way to ensure that nothing happens to him in the future if I do decide to go rogue now is it?”

“If you touch him, I’ll kill you.” Wanda threatens in a low and dangerous voice, her signature red power starting to build up around her. Loki throws her an unimpressed glance.

“Child, I’ve been weaving magic since long before your great-great grandmother was even a mere thought in this world. Don’t threaten me with your pathetic parlor tricks or I might show you what a _real_ witch looks like.” Loki says before he rolls his eyes. “Besides, didn’t we already have this conversation at the airport Captain?”

“What conversation?”

“The one where I pointed out that your overbearing attempts to manipulate the boy into believing that he’s safe with you was hilariously off base and insulting to everyone watching?” Loki replies. “I sincerely doubt that he would appreciate this little display, pretending that you’re his knights in shining armor come to protect the pretty little damsel who apparently can’t be trusted to think for himself. Come now, he is well aware of who I am, and what I have done. Don’t get annoyed because he likes me better than the lot of you. I can’t help that I’m better company than Stark-killers.”

“Tony’s not dead.” Steve growls and he feels like he’s practically grinding his teeth as he says it. “Say that again and see what happens. You’ll find out why the Council put me here to keep a leash on you.”

“Ooh, promises promises.” Loki purrs and bats his eyelashes at Steve, using the same saccharine tone that he used earlier in his female shell. “Shall we set up a word for you before we begin? Which one would you like?”

“Drop the crap Loki.” Clint snaps and Loki tuts at them.

“No, no. That’s far too long. It won’t work well in scene.” Loki replies and Clint takes a step towards him but Steve stops him. Clint gives him a confused look and Steve shakes his head.

“No, that’s what he wants. We’re not going to be the ones to make the first move.” Steve says before he turns to glance at the Asgardian again. “I know that you’re going to do something, and when you do – we’ll be there.”

“Oh, I hope so.” Loki says. “Causing mischief without an audience is so boring.” He looks at them. “You should learn to take a page from Anthony’s book. Learn to work together with people that you don’t trust or even remotely like and do it with a smile.”

“A.J.’s one of us you fucking asshole.” Clint snaps at that. “And Cap’s right. Fuck with him and we will fuck your shit up.”

“…I’m sorry. Was I supposed to be threatened by that, or laugh?” Loki asks and Clint looks like he might throw caution to the wind and attempt to take out the Asgardian regardless of the mission. He stops himself though, barely holding in the rage. Steve understands where he’s coming from. Loki’s mocking them and he’s using A.J.’s safety to do it.

Anything else they want to say is prevented by the small beep of the door, heralding the return of their other two members. Nat and A.J. enter the room and they both seem to register the hostile atmosphere in the area.

“What happened?” A.J. asks, his voice firm and a tiny bit tired.

“Nothing.” Clint says, rolling his shoulders. “Just making sure we’re all on the same page.”

“And what ‘page’ is that?” A.J. presses and Clint looks at him with an almost innocent look that Steve thinks even Loki should be impressed by.

“How seriously we’re taking this mission.” He says and A.J. glances at Loki who nods in agreement and even with that nod, A.J. doesn’t look like he’s bought it.

“Let’s all remember that everyone here is on the same side.” A.J. tells them all. “And if I hear anything else about behind closed doors threats or any attempt to sabotage a member of this group, I will take action.” He threatens and Steve’s proud with how firm his voice is even if he is a little off base with the threat. He shouldn’t be looking at them all equally. Loki hadn’t earned his place here amongst the Avengers like the rest of them, and that until he did a bit of caution was wise. “Got it?”

“Got it.” Clint says and Steve nods when A.J.’s eyes go to him and he’s guessing that Wanda must agree before he looks at Loki and then even turning to look at Nat, who nods as well.

“Okay good. In which case, we’ll call it a night. Tomorrow morning stop by and we’ll see what we’ve netted ourselves to look into. Everyone go get some sleep.” He motions for them to leave before turning to glance at the computer screen one final time and because of that distraction he misses how Loki stands and grabs one of the final pieces of fruit in his container, popping it into his mouth with a grin and a wink in Clint’s direction before walking out of the room. Clint looks like he’s just two seconds away from saying 'fuck it' and attacking the trickster, but thankfully a quick glance to Steve and a curt shake of his head from him makes Clint sigh in frustration and storm out of the room.

_So that’s how it’s going to be. Fine, we’ll play your game Loki, and we’ll win._


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A brief look into a mindset that I would have rather not gone into (shudders *Wanda bad touch alert* scrubs self clean)

It’s hard to say how life would have been different if ‘x, y or z’ happened instead of what truly did. It’s a common train of thought that Wanda constantly picks up from various individuals and they seem almost obsessed with the concept of ‘what if’. ‘How would things have been different if I had done this’ or ‘where would I be if I hadn’t done that?’ A back and forth sort of self-torture that Wanda’s never really seen the need for.

She’s heard some of the Avengers wonder it before too. A running baseline thought process of ‘How would Wanda’s and Pietro’s lives have been different if Stark hadn’t destroyed their everything all those years ago?’

She doesn’t have an answer for it anymore than they do, or even anymore than Pietro did when he’d consider it too. He used to wonder a lot if they were doing the right thing, if they were going too far or if something was worth the price that it demanded. It’s always been entertaining to her to see the base differences of them considering their twin status. Wanda has always been the opposite in that. She’s always been less concerned with ‘right and wrong’. Such a concept only exists in a fair world and not one where people like Stark make up the rules as they see fit and benefit at everyone else’s expense. There was never a concept of ‘too far’ when the people they were going up against had no limits to the evil that they could unleash. Any price was worth the victory, any sacrifice was worth the end goal. To say or be willing to do anything less was to have already lost.

Strucker understood that. That’s why he and Wanda had gotten along so well together. She’d been his pet project, personally chosen to lead the charge and to be first in line for the experiments that would elevate them to godhood. A god could destroy Tony Stark. A god could save Sokovia from these leeches who consumed and consumed until almost nothing was left. A god could stop a bomb from falling on a family’s home at dinner time and a god could save those people when something like that happened.

In the end though, even with the power of a god Wanda had been unable to stop Stark from destroying everything she held dear.

Sometimes, it feels like Wanda’s never stopped paying for Stark’s actions and ‘mistakes’. His bomb took away her parents and took away any hope of a normal like that they might have had. The wars that broke out in Sokovia came from people like Stark who always wanted more and more of the pie regardless of anyone else who might starve or be in their way. Those wars had taken her childhood and her innocence and had created the monster that everyone wanted to paint her into. Stark’s overinflated hubris when it came to being able to fight the unknown and reaching out to the unknowable to combat it had resulted in Ultron, which had taken Pietro from her. Then Stark’s need to push the blame elsewhere and take control of them had taken Vision from her.

Somedays it felt like she was always losing ground and that it was always Stark at the end of the day who made it happen. There doesn’t pass a day when Wanda hasn’t thought of how it would feel to rip Stark’s heart out like she’d taken Ultron’s and hold it in her hand while he suffered and died. Even with his supposed nearing demise, Wanda still dreams about it. About finding him in a hospital room and making him watch helplessly as she unhooked all of the chords keeping him alive. About taking the Iron Man armor and digging small pieces of it back into his skin and his veins and letting the creation he made destroy him completely while she looked on.

Nothing but red and rage existed inside of her when it came to Tony Stark, and that’s how Wanda liked it. It was simple, it was easy. Now though, now none of that uncomplicatedness was here now.

Wanda knows the dark things that would have crossed her mind if she’d heard that Stark had a child. She won’t deny that it would have been a running loop of ‘eye for an eye, a family for a family’. If she had thought that losing this child would have given Stark the same pain that she felt then she wouldn’t have hesitated even a moment to bring judgement upon them both.

…but fate seemed to have a funny sense of humor, if not a cruel one. Not that Wanda has ever thought anything else about fate’s designs. Meeting A.J. first, before learning who he truly was undoubtedly saved the young Stark’s life. She can’t deny that he’s nothing like his father, and it took being made to see him before seeing Stark to make her realize that. Where Stark was cold and vain and arrogant and self-serving in all the worst ways, A.J. was sweet and kind and awkward and shy. He was the kind of person who laid out to see the stars at night and who had picnics out in the grass and who smiled so genuinely at times so as to make Wanda’s heart flip in her chest. He was kind to everyone, even those he was conditioned to hate and Wanda can’t feel spite towards him, even if sometimes she wishes that she could. It would make things easier if she could. It would make it easier if A.J. was anything like his father.

It would be easier if she didn’t feel drawn to him and if she didn’t wonder what it would feel like to hold his hand for real and not for a pretend mission and to have him turn one of those smiles on her because of something she’d done to earn it.

Wanda rolls in the bed and tucks her arm under her cheek as she looks in the dark to where A.J. is sleeping on the couch. The room is blissfully silent, and Wanda feels something inside of her rejoice at that. Having someone so close has always been a headache and a half of confused dreams or thoughts coming from the other person’s mind invading Wanda’s while she struggles to maintain her own barriers and get some rest at the same time. Vision was helpful in that, the hum of the Mind Stone’s energy usually being enough to drown out any other sounds. Like a kind of staticky white noise that helped drown out the rest of the world once she’d gotten used to it.

Wanda still misses Vision, still loves Vision she thinks, but there was always something between them that struggled to take root. At times she’d been drawn into his almost innocence to the world at large around them. His curiosity at this new existence of his and his ease at how he seemed both young and wise all at the same time. Sometimes Wanda wishes that he hadn’t betrayed her, first by siding with Stark and standing against her and later by looking at her with tired and judging eyes while he walked away. It’s what made Wanda step back and realize that there had been no future for the two of them. They were too different, two different species with different wants and desires and needs.

A.J. by contrast though is just like Wanda. They’re two peas in a pod, pulled together by a string of fate that found itself amused by the thought of turning her soulmate into a Stark. He understands what it’s like, to be a freak amongst ‘normal people’. To know what it feels like to be overwhelmed and misunderstood by things that are so beyond human understanding that even trying to put it into words is already falling sort of any actual working definition. The two of them are just freaks, created at the hands of monsters and left to walk this world alone until they found each other. Just freaks who can be normal together against a world that’s against them.

But even now, just like with Vision, Stark stands in the way. Why he feels the need to get in the way of any kind of happiness that Wanda might have is beyond her. Why can’t he just leave her alone? Why can’t he just let something good happen to her for once without needing to interfere and destroy it? She wishes that A.J. could open his eyes and see the truth of his father’s evil ways. Of the evil that is his family legacy that hangs over him. Wanda knows that he’s innocent of anything his father has done, but by allowing the blinders to stay on he’s allowing himself to be manipulated by the enemy. If he would just let them come off for five seconds he’d know the truth, but she doesn’t know how to help him see that.

Wanda thought that they’d been making progress, or at least heading down the right path when he’d agreed to look into Stark’s dealings for her. She honestly believes that if this mission hadn’t come up so soon that all of this might already be behind them. A bad and distant memory. Despite his confidence in Stark, Wanda knows how the data mine will turn out. Stark’s worse than the devil himself and there’s no way that A.J. doesn’t have his eyes forcibly opened to the true nature of the man. If he’d been able to do it before now, then she knows that he would have already turned from Stark and turned to them. Honestly it was inevitable that it would happen. It was clear that A.J. was meant to be an Avenger. He was meant to be the one that stood next to Captain America instead of the original Iron Man pilot.

She honestly thinks that he was meant to meet her. A kind of yin and yang situation happening between the two of them. A fated encounter that no one saw coming.

As she lays there in the bed, watching the young man on the couch sleep so peacefully she can’t help but entertain herself with those ‘what if’ scenarios that she’d never had time for before. What if they’d figured out the truth and A.J. had been forced to come to terms with his father’s true nature before they left on this mission? Would he have been so distant from them and so quick to turn to _Loki_? What if he’d had the time to cut all ties with Stark and had the time to fall into the waiting arms of people who would truly care about him and not just parade him around as a scapegoat for the media to eat alive while Stark plotted in dark corners? Would they have had picnics that got broken up by the rain? Would he have laughed and argue that it was just water while he took her hand and rushed them inside? What if they had been given the chance to fully become a team before coming out here? Would he have sat next to her on the bed while they watched the movie, turning to ask her what she thought of it instead of sitting halfway across the room and chatting with the enemy?

…would he have held her hand at the airport? Would they have spent the time talking away like normal people without the strain of Wanda’s powers on a conversation? Would he have made her laugh? Would she have made him smile?

Would he be in this bed right now with her? Or would he still be so much like Steve instead of Stark and shy away from wanting to make her feel uncomfortable or like he was trying to take advantage?

She thinks that last one might hold still, and it makes her smile in the dark towards the other Avenger in the room, a warm feeling in her chest at the sweetness of it all. She pulls the blankets up a little bit more and settles in, allowing herself to dream about the potential ‘what if’s’ that the future might bring between them all when Stark is finally out of the picture and A.J. is with them fully where he belongs.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes I wonder if you guys think ‘is she ever just baffled by what she’s just written?’ and just know that the answer is yes. Yes I most definitely am.

One of the more frustrating things about this mission is that it’s not easy to find even just five minutes to talk with, or check in on, the rest of the team without drawing either Loki’s or A.J.’s attention to them. There is also of course the added complication of making sure that they’re not noticed or observed by any outside third parties who might notice the odd group of ‘strangers-not-strangers’ who have come into the hotel, therefore running the risk of compromising the mission. He manages though, of course he manages, but in order to do so he’s had to make some iffy concessions. Concessions that he’s not entirely too pleased with. Namely, the one where it requires that Loki be left behind with A.J. as the boy’s current minder and watcher while Steve is having one on one’s with the team, and Steve’s noticed how the Asgardian trickster seems less and less amused each time he’s required to shift from whatever visage it is that he’s stolen from some human woman out there in the world and morph into a strangely surly replica of Wanda in order to prevent any raised eyebrows or questions.

It’s a concession that worries Steve a little, as he’s not had the time to really coach their young leader-to-be against the Asgardian, but with Nat’s latest warnings about A.J.’s growing ire from the stress of his first mission and his ever-thinning rope with trying to pretend that he’s got everything well in hand, it’s a conversation that the two are going to have to have at a later time. Steve can feel that A.J. has all of the potential of a great and gifted leader, but he suffers from his father’s misunderstanding of how a team works and that’s something that Steve and the others have decided needs to come first on his training. A.J. needs to learn to depend on the rest of his team and to utilize their strengths in the proper way, and to put the proper people in the proper roles first and foremost regardless of outside biases. He has to learn that his false impressions from Tony about how he’d lose ground if he accepted even just a few words of helpful advice, is wrong and toxic to the team.

It’ll come; Steve’s sure of it as he’s got high hopes for the future tenure of the new Iron man pilot. Steve thinks that getting to watch and guide A.J. through the steps and getting to see him step into that role fully one day will be something worth seeing. Something worth all of this push and pull back that happened here at the beginning. That it will all be worth it when they all stand together at the end, because that’s what it should always be about – standing together. Despite it all, despite the mistakes and the bad choices, knowing that at the end of the day it’s your family and that they’ve got your back. Tony never found a way to learn that lesson, but Steve felt that A.J. could, and that he could rise from the mistakes of his father like the phoenix of legend that Tony always liked to claim he was.

Right now though, right now they were all in a kind of holding period and it was driving Steve insane. He wasn’t a big fan of standing around most days, and certainly not standing around and staring at computers waiting and hoping for something to happen. He wants to do something; he wants to get up and tear into it all with his own two hands. As funny as it is, it reminds him of the feeling he felt back on the Helicarrier all that time ago, before the first group came together. When Bruce and Tony had just sat in a room while Steve went out and actually found evidence of SHIELD’s underhanded dealings much to the surprise of everyone. That’s what Steve feels like he should be doing right now, what they should all be doing. None of this ‘scanning computer systems looking for an anomaly’ stuff that A.J. has agreed to do – undoubtedly at the behest of Tony.

Who knows, maybe in his own way Tony _was_ still with them. Slowly learning to hand of the reigns to Steve and the rest like he should have before. Learning to trust his team, his family, with his son. Maybe he’s ever present in the computer systems in the only way he can be without stepping too much on A.J.’s toes.

“How are you doing?” Steve asks Wanda, getting to the point of their quick one on one before they have to separate again. The young girl is leaning over the balcony and huffs out a sigh of frustration. He finds himself smiling a little at it. “That bad huh?” He asks and she doesn’t answer. “What’s wrong?” She doesn’t answer that either, but she doesn’t have to. He can see where her glance has gone, looking down at A.J. and Loki sitting outside, talking over some light snacks as A.J. works on that computer that’s never far away from his hands. “Is everything okay between you and A.J.?”

Truthfully, Steve was surprised to find out how calm he was at the thought of A.J. rooming with Wanda when he first heard of it. With who his father was, A.J. had a potential track record that looked like his fathers when it came to the fairer sex and how to properly handle and respect them. Not that Steve needed to worry too much about what someone with the powers of the Scarlet Witch could do to an overly amorous playboy type that never met a pair of legs that he didn’t want to flirt up; but thankfully A.J. is nothing like Tony in this situation either. Which is a blessing. Instead of trying to push his luck with the pretty young woman sharing the room with him, Steve’s heard how the young man has done exactly what Steve would have expected of him and has taken to maintaining a polite distance around the room for Wanda’s comfort and security, as well as sleeping on the couch and apparently making sure to keep his eyes to himself even with the rather concerning sleepwear that Wanda has chosen to bring on this trip.

Steve figures that it might harken back to the unknown mother, and what it must have been like being raised by a woman that had gotten taken advantage of by a rich boy. She probably taught him how to be better than his father was in those respects.

“I swear, I think he talks to me more when I’m not me then he does when I am.” She mutters, pulling Steve’s mind back to the moment at hand and he has to remember what his question was before he follows her gaze down to where A.J. and Loki-Wanda-Clone are sitting and randomly chatting back and forth in far to amicably a way.

“I’m sure it’s nothing like that.” Steve defends the youngest member of their team. “Remember, Loki likes to push buttons and doesn’t really care about boundaries.” She huffs at that. He gets why, since there’s probably not a truer statement about the Asgardian trickster existing in this world. “You know A.J.’s a bit shy. He’s probably just trying to be polite. Look at it from his point of view, Loki’s a dangerous criminal who is a threat to him. He’s probably more than aware how quickly Loki could flip and seriously hurt him if he upset him.”

“Like I’d let that happen.” Wanda mutters under her breath and Steve chuckles a little as he comes over and leans down against the railing next to her. “He has to know that I wouldn’t let that happen by now.”

“I think he does.” Steve says with a small nod. “Or at least I think he’s learning it. Remember, he’s got a lot of false information about us that he’s got to recognize and let go of. It can’t be easy with everyone constantly reminding him how evil we are.” She sighs a little. “So, you and A.J. huh?” He asks and she gets an embarrassed look. “You really like him then?” She nods slightly. “He’s a good kid, in spite of everything that could have gone wrong.” He nudges her shoulder. “I think you two are cute together.”

“Really?”

“Do I ever lie?” He asks and she chuckles softly and shakes her head.

“Clint and Nat say the same thing.” She says before she bites her lip lightly. “I just…sometimes I feel like I’m just not sure how he feels about me.” She admits. “I mean, one moment he’s sweet and we’re getting along great and I feel like we have a connection, and then there are walls that I can’t see past.” She shakes her head. “I’m not used to that. I mean, Vision was my first real boyfriend and even with him I could get a read on where we were standing. A.J. I can’t do that with, and as much as I love that, it drives me nuts.”

“You ‘love’ that?” Steve pokes and Wanda blushes at her slip of tongue. “For what it’s worth, I think you two have a connection too.” Steve acknowledges. “But like I said, I think he’s just confused by it. He’s probably getting a lot of push and pull from a whole bunch of different areas and with people undoubtedly reminding him constantly not to trust us and to treat us like the plague.”

“You mean Stark.” Wanda snaps and Steve shrugs.

“Yeah, Tony undoubtedly, but also probably Potts and Rhodes and Hogan and everyone else who lost the war.” Steve says. “I don’t doubt that Tony’s told him several times not to even think about getting close to us, let alone to consider dating one of his old teammates.”

“Mostly me in general.” She says. “He hates me.” She clenches her fist and Steve nudges her again.

“Well luckily I think that it doesn’t matter what Tony thinks.” He says to her and she glances at him. “I think it’s up to A.J. who gets to decide who he hangs out with or falls in love with.”

“Do you think he could love me?”

“Why wouldn’t he?” Steve asks, almost affronted for her. “You’re brave, smart, capable, beautiful.” She ducks her head a little at the compliments and there’s that blush on her cheeks. “A.J.’s a lucky man to have someone like you at his side. Someone who is able to watch his back in the field and on missions and to understand the life he lives.” Steve sighs. “Actually, I think I envy the two of you for that.” Wanda looks up at him curiously.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean…you guys found each other, but I don’t feel like there’s anyone out there for me anymore.” He says sadly. “I think that ship has sailed. Back in the day there was Peggy. She understood everything that was going on with me. She had my back and I knew that I could trust her and that she’d be waiting for me at the end of the day.” He shakes his head. “Nowadays though there’s none of that. I’m too different. My understanding of relationships is too different for all this ‘modern’ stuff. I tried with Sharon but it just didn’t work out. She had her own things and I knew I would never be a first priority for her. We just lived in different worlds. I’ve become ‘Captain America’ over ‘Steve Rogers’. Can’t really find someone that’s made for me like that anymore.” He looks back at Wanda. “That’s why you and A.J. are so lucky that you’ve found each other. You’ll be able to be there, on all levels for one another. It’s a powerful thing.” Wanda thinks about it for a moment and then gets a small smile.

“You’re right. I didn’t really think about it like that.” She admits.

“You just gotta remember to be patient.” Steve reminds her. “A.J.’s not like his dad who could fall in love every five minutes. Trust me though, it’s better that way. The longer it takes, the stronger it is. You just gotta know what you want and you’ve gotta be willing to go for it. To push as hard as you can and to hell with the consequences or to the people who would try to tell you two no.” He looks down at where A.J. and Loki-Wanda-Clone are talking and A.J. has gotten an amused look on his face at something the other has said. “One day, that could be the two of you.” He smiles at Wanda. “You look good together.”

“…We do.” She acknowledges. “And we will.” She smiles up at him. “Thanks Steve.”

“Anytime Wanda. I’m always here for you.” He promises.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So just in case anyone forgot – As mentioned back in The Roles We Play Ch. 6, The Dark World didn’t end with Loki overtaking Asgard and Odin being kicked off the throne, which means that the events of Thor Ragnarök have not occurred in any shape or form. Which is mostly because I still have not seen Thor Ragnarök. Just a heads up. 
> 
> Also, from previous installments – Loki knows that A.J. is a machine similar to Vision. He does not know that A.J. and Tony are the same person. 
> 
> Here's a nice step away from those crazy people. Enjoy.

If there was one thing that A.J. were to give A.I.M., that is if he had to give them something that wasn’t just the middle finger over and over again, then it would be to say that they were very well contained in the information that was leaked to outside sources. A.J. and the team have been here several days already, and A.J. feels like he knows almost as much as he did before he actually got on scene. Heck, he feels like he knows more about the upcoming disciplinary actions that Rhodes is considering along with the other Team Leads to hand off to the Accord’s Council for the rogue Avengers for their ‘super-secret actions’ behind his back than he does about A.I.M..

Which of course tells him something about A.I.M. that makes him worry, and that’s the realization of the high probability that the information that was ‘picked up’ by the Accord’s Council’s sweeps was an intentional drop. Something that makes A.J. rather uncomfortable seeing as they’re currently sitting in A.I.M.’s potential turf with a group that doesn’t seem to know how to do their actual job and not playact the glory days of a time long past. Honestly, A.J.’s not certain if he’s more annoyed by the fact that it’s happening or if he’s annoyed by how stupid they must think he is as they do it. He’d told Steve before that there was no reason to swap Loki out with Wanda and yet, it’d happened several times already. Clint and Natasha had snuck out of the building a few times as well, which means that they’ve undertaken orders from a third party that wasn’t A.J. or had decided just to do their own thing without asking permission. He was leaning more towards the first one, just from personal experience. He’d give that they were usually pretty good about only being gone for short bursts of time that might have gone unnoticed by someone engrossed in computer hacking, but A.J.’s made a point of tracking the whole group as it is one of his secondary requirements during this mission to keep an eye on them so therefore he’s more than aware the number of times they’ve tried to pull the wool over his eyes and do private recon.

The recon at this point in time is useless though, and a waste of everyone’s time as well as potentially hinting to A.I.M. that the group has arrived on scene for them to go out and kill. After all, it’s not that A.J. hasn’t found locations, it’s just that none of the locations have seemed like a truly viable point of origin for A.I.M.’s dastardly schemes. The main point of all of this is that none of this is supposed to be like tracking Hydra all that time ago, where the Avengers would waste everyone’s time by going to each and every location tagged by Tony as a potential Hydra base regardless of the probability of said location being an actual base or an active one. It resulted in a lot of empty buildings, and useless back and forth that made Rogers feel good and like he was doing something, but just irritated Tony with how pointless the whole exercise was. He’d learned to keep his mouth shut about all of it though and constantly keep suiting up over and over again for a whole bunch of nothing. Eventually they’d find a base though – always the ones that Tony would try to press for them to go to first that they never listened to him when he’d say it, and Rogers would always say ‘Any chance of it being Hydra requires us to go there. I’d rather see an empty building then take the risk of letting even one of them go’ – and Rogers would feel vindicated against his old war enemy and Tony would be forced to juggle all of his hats while Rogers patted himself on the back for a job well done.

“Have you considered what you’re going to do once your probation is over?” A.J. asks, making a few keystrokes and as he considers a potential rabbit hole before he decides not to take it and starts digging for that ever-elusive thread that will lead him to where he wants to be. “I’m sure you’ve had offers?” Loki spins the spoon in the cup of cold hot cocoa for a few moments as he thinks over A.J.’s question. It’s strangely funny to A.J. how he can see the differences despite the mask that Loki is wearing right now. Granted it might be because Loki is uninterested in portraying an accurate portrait of Wanda Maximoff, even going so far as to keep his green eyes in the Sokovian woman’s form. A.J. hasn’t said anything about it, but secretly he’s grateful for it. His perfect posture though, even when pouting is hilarious and his gestures hold a certain level of bored distain that reminds A.J. of Victor Von Doom and his ‘I’m a royal amongst peasants’ behaviors.

“I have considered a few of them.” Loki says eventually. “Dr. Strange has offered me a position with his team for when I come to Midgard. I’ll only be part time, considering my responsibilities to Asgard, but his missions are more likely to better utilize my skillsets better than the others would. That and I find myself curious about the libraries of Kamar-Taj and the information that they might hold.” A.J. figures he can stand behind that. “There is also the possibility of joining the Captain’s team.”

“Huh, I’ll admit I don’t know much about what Danvers team does.” He says as he finds another dead end and starts again. Whoever it is on the other side of this is someone that A.J. is actually curious to meet. They might be a ‘bad guy’ but A.J. can’t deny skill when he sees it. “Outside of the ‘extraplanetary defense’ tagline.”

“She mostly patrols the borders of this universe.” Loki replies. “Although accepting a position with her team would put me back on a team with Thor, which is something I am loathe to do at this point in time. We see enough of each other on Asgard as it is. Although I would admit that it would be no hardship to lend my power to her leadership, if I were to step in on that team once in a while.” He looks at A.J. “What of you? You’re not beholden to this parole scenario. Why are you even engaging with those of us that are?”

“Location mostly.” A.J. replies. “And ease of availability in said location. I’m stationed out of the Compound right now and outside of Dr. Banner, I’m the only non-team lead that could be called upon to oversee a secondary group.” He lays a few traps of his own in this new location before he moves on. “Plus right now I’m in my own preliminary sort of position, so interaction with the Avengers members who pass through the Compound is to be expected.”

“Will you continue to remain at the Compound?”

“For the foreseeable future? I think so.” He says. “The labs and the workshops are at the Compound. Dr. Banner and Colonel Rhodes work out of them too, although I do suppose that at this point my own location is dependent on what happens with everyone else come the conclusion of this mission.”

“Meaning?” Loki asks curiously and A.J. shrugs.

“Meaning that if certain people figure out that they can remain at the Compound indefinitely if they refuse any offered positions, then I’ll probably shift from the Compound’s labs to the Baxter Buildings labs.”

“Baxter? Not a Stark location then?”

“Not possible.” A.J. replies. “Stark Industries and Stark Holdings have permanently separated themselves from the Avengers Initiative and can no longer house or fund any project or team. Which means that to remain on the active Avengers roster, I’d have to go to where another team is stationed out of. When it comes to another science and mechanic group, that means Sue Storm’s group over at the Baxter Building.”

“You do not wish to be an active field agent under Colonel Rhodes?” Loki inquires and A.J. shakes his head. “That’s curious, why not?” For a moment, A.J. almost wants to say ‘been there and done that’, but he bites it back and says something else.

“One, with the War Machine already on that team there’s no need for a second Iron Suit to be present on it. Two, I can do more over on the R&D and planetary defense projects then I can by standing around waiting for someone to start breaking things. Not to mention soon there will be another Iron Suit wearer with the Rescue Model rolling out which makes the Iron Man suit less and less required for day to day skirmishes.”

“Rescue Model?”

“A new suit design that rolled out for Pepper and Harley. Harley’s still in training with it though; and while Pepper’s fully ready to go if need be, she’s only on last call resort standing. Plus there’s the Iron Spider upgrades for Spider-Man so there are other options to look to than just Iron Man.”

“Would you rather stay at the Compound? Then go to the Baxter Building with Storm’s team?”

“I’m more at home in the Compound’s labs, but that’s just because that’s where I’ve been. The Fantastic Four are a pretty good group though and I wouldn’t mind working alongside them. For all I know, if I shift over Dr. Banner might as well, which would be nice.” A.J. pauses at something he sees and Loki goes quiet for a while, seeming to notice the other’s sudden focus on the computer screen before he tags the potential of this one and sends the ‘what should I do?’ request to Rhodey. He pushes the computer aside at that point and finally reaches out to take a few bites of the food in front of them. He notices at one point that Loki is watching him. “What?”

“Nothing, I’m merely curious.” Loki replies. “I’m under the impression that the Vision cannot eat, and yet I’ve seen you do it a few times now.”

“He can eat, he just doesn’t taste anything and since he doesn’t require it for fuel, he doesn’t bother with it most days.” A.J. says and Loki makes a thoughtful hum as he reaches out and grabs something for himself to munch on.

“You seem to require it though, or at least you consume it as frequently as a human might.” He says and A.J. shrugs.

“To a point, I do require it.” He admits. “I break it down differently than the Vision does. Entirely different operating system and hardware. I need the biofuel that eating provides, he doesn’t.”

“I’ll admit to being rather curious about your construction, I hope you don't mind.” Loki says, his eyes glancing over A.J.’s form. “I’ve not seen nor experienced entities like you and the Vision before.”

“We’re a whole new breed.” A.J. jokes lightly before he sombers a bit. “Although for the most part we’re too new to fully understand our existence. We’re just sort of feeling it out as it comes along.”

“I suppose that’s all that’s left to do, when it comes down to it.” Loki agrees and the two of them drop the subject. “Have the others returned from their self-imposed missions?” A.J. pauses and checks.

“Yeah, they’re all back and watching us now.” He says and Loki gets a grin that just looks downright horrifying on Wanda’s face for the trouble it promises. He thinks if he truly saw such a grin on Wanda's face that he'd drop everything and run away screaming. 

“Shall we give them something to watch then?” He asks before he reaches out and starts to play far too friendly to A.J. sitting next to him. He also starts to play with his long hair, twirling it almost nervously and batting his eyelashes a lot at A.J. and biting his lip a few times in a way that strangely makes A.J. think that he's pulling from Twilight or something with this act and it's embarrassing. The pièce de résistance at the end comes though when Loki clearly feels that he's not gotten the reaction that he wants from the other members of their party and A.J. does have a brief moment of consideration on whether or not he should put a stop to whatever is coming, when Loki picks up one of the grapes from the small fruit bowl on the table and leans over, pressing it to A.J.’s lips and A.J. can’t help the raised eyebrows that he gives the other before he slowly opens up and accepts the offering.

Clint is somehow bumping into their table and spilling Loki’s drink down his front split seconds later, materializing almost out of nowhere and Loki pretends to ‘try and not freak out’ in an over-the-top yet somehow still perfectly Wanda interpretation as the waiter rushes over with a napkin for the spill and A.J. just munches away, fighting down the amused smile that wants to break out before he picks up his computer.

So much for not drawing attention to themselves. Oh well. A.I.M. probably knew they were here anyways, and if somehow by some strange miracle they didn’t, they certainly did now.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the continued love and support from your comments! Honestly I can't explain enough how much I adore them!!!
> 
> Here's the next chapter for you all, enjoy!!

Truly, at this point he’s not sure if he should label what happens next as ‘thankfully it all came to a head’ or as ‘annoyingly it all came to a head’ as a defining sentence for what came next; but this strange cloud that’s been present over A.J.’s head was always going to do something. There was no way that it would go unchallenged, not as the days went on and more and more was added to the pot of ‘things that shouldn’t be happening’.

He’s not entirely sure if he’s happy that it finally happens that night at the ‘where we’re at currently in the mission’ meeting that he makes sure to have despite what the different Rogue members proceed to do with said information. Honestly, he’s been rather ‘by the book’ when it comes to these meetings. Mostly because he knows that his ‘leadership’ will undoubtedly be called into question at the time that they return to the Compound and the disciplinary meetings are held. He doesn’t want there to be a chance that Rogers or any of his ilk are able to point at A.J.’s handling of everything and be able to gain any sort of traction with their ‘he wasn’t ready and couldn’t handle it so we _had_ to do what we did’ dialogue that he has no doubts they’re all going to try and hide behind. He wants to be sure that there’s plenty of evidence that proves that Rogers and his little gang are off their fucking rockers insane and have deluded themselves once more by convincing each other that this mission is something else other than what it is.

All it was supposed to be was a simple recon.

A simple _fucking_ recon.

How do you mess that up? A.J. knows how now, and it’s the 10-step plan that the Rogues have put into effect that includes nifty little tidbits of things like: lying to your superior officer, abandoning your post, undermining the chain of authority, bullying of a teammate and other fun additions.

The Council had basically _handed_ the Rogues a win on a silver fucking platter with this mission. All they had to do was show up, keep quiet and keep their heads down for a few days. That was it. They should have brought a book or two and just settled in for a boring vacation. Maybe, and that was a heavy maybe, they would have been forced to extract A.J. if things went sour, but all in all it should have been something that they all could have done in their sleep. Hell, the Council had originally considered putting up Spider-Man and Harley for the ‘mission hours’ before both them and the Avengers Leaders felt that it was just too large of a team to justify being sent in. The person getting the most work out was supposed to be A.J., wherein he would be able to show his ‘skills’ in the field outside of the Iron Man armor and potentially find the data that would allow them to close the still open loop of A.I.M..

Instead, A.J.’s having to write up all of the bullshit that’s been going on behind his back.

He’s had to write down the secondary missions being run by Natasha and Clint. Both of whom he has record of them contacting outside resources with their mission parameters and locations, as well as maintaining an updated schedule. He doesn’t doubt that Fury is on the other side of those ‘top-secret-messages’, but seeing as SHIELD is supposed to be debunked and is certainly no longer buddy buddy with the new setup of the Avengers Initiative under the Accord’s purview makes it all very complicated. He figures that all of this is an attempt to weasel back into the Avengers good graces and regain some modicum of control that SHIELD once enjoyed before they lost control over Tony and the Initiative as a whole.

Not just that, but he’s also had to keep records of the recordings of Rogers’ private one-on-one meetings with the team behind A.J.’s back. Something that’s in direct violation of his position as a grunt in the current team lineup. A.J.’s had a brief word with Rogers, to remind him that he is not the team lead on this mission and Rogers had just smiled and nodded, saying that he ‘understood and was ready to follow A.J.’s lead’.

It’s also the team bullying that keeps trying to happen each time he’s out of the room with one of the others or even just has his back turned towards the perpetrator and Loki. He’s got recordings of Clint mostly, being actively hostile and verbally aggressive towards their Asgardian team member, and a few of Rogers talking down to him as well and one time when Wanda let her powers manifest behind A.J.’s back in a clear threat to the other magic user who had only laughed out loud before he’d walked off and headed back to his rooms with Rogers.

Speaking of ‘going back to the assigned rooms’, A.J.’s seriously considering writing up a potential sexual harassment report. He’s grown rather confused by Wanda’s lack of basic roommate respect and boundaries throughout their entire time here. He’s done what he can to keep a healthy and professional distance from the Sokovian woman, and yet with each passing night he’s grown more and more baffled by the seemingly never-ending collection of Victoria Secret looking lingerie nighties that the other brunette has taken to wearing to bed and her strange excessively tactile nature. Not just that, but that time she walked out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel that was almost a skosh too small, apologizing that she’d left her clothes out on the bed had almost had him gouging out his eyes in horror. He thinks if he’d still been human that he would have broken something with how fast he spun around to stare at the wall as she went about her business behind him. A.J. honestly thinks that he’d rather live through Siberia a dozen more times than be stuck in that awkward seven minutes again wherein Wanda had leisurely dug through her suitcase and chosen her clothes for the day before finally disappearing back into the bathroom where she should have remained the entire time.

“A.J., can we talk?” Is what starts it all, Rogers looking at him with that earnest look in his eyes and A.J. nods, telling everyone to remain in the room and to play nice as he leaves with Rogers to go back to his and Loki’s room in order to have a ‘private meeting’.

“What did you need?” A.J. asks once the door is closed and Rogers takes in a deep breath before slowly letting it out. He looks like he’s uncertain where he should start, but A.J. knows that he’ll figure it out soon enough. If not he’ll just start talking until he finds it. For how much he used to say that Tony talked too much and always dominated the conversation, Rogers never seemed to realize that he was talking more about himself than anyone else.

“I’m concerned.” Rogers says after a brief pause. “I know that you’re still feeling out everything, and that you’re trying to be fair to everyone equally, which is a good stance to have most of the time.” He sighs. “But I feel like in certain cases, it’s unwise.”

“Certain cases?” A.J. pretends to be stupid. He knows exactly what this is about. This is about Loki.

“What has your dad told you about Loki?”

“I am well aware of Mr. Laufeyson’s history. Both with Earth in general and the original Avengers team lineup.” A.J. replies to that and Rogers doesn’t look satisfied.

“Sometimes things can be left out of the ‘official reports’, or they can be used to paint a specific kind of picture.” He says and A.J. almost feels his jaw drop. He almost wants to say ‘oh wait, so when it’s _other people_ then official reports can’t be trusted, but when it’s ‘Tony Stark Not Recommended’ then every single word is pure gold.

“I am well aware of how things like that work.” A.J. says instead, biting his tongue. “As it stands, Mr. Laufeyson has been cleared for active participation in this team and his actions are being recorded as much as everyone else’s.”

“I’m just concerned with what I’m seeing. I’m not the only one. Clint’s worried too.” Rogers gives A.J. a strange look at that point. “ _Wanda’s_ worried about it too.” It almost sounds like Wanda’s opinions should weigh heavily on A.J.’s decision making in some way and A.J. thinks he might frown at that sentence construction but Rogers presses on before A.J. can question him about why he should care about Wanda in particular. “Loki’s known for being a trickster. I know that he and your dad got along pretty well, but Tony was kind of known for getting along with some rather shady people.”

Yup. There it is. Somehow Tony’s involved in this once more and is still somehow in the wrong. Bravo Rogers.

“Was he now? I’m curious Rogers, what ‘shady people’ did my father ‘get along with’?”

“I didn’t mean it in a bad way.” Rogers tries to defend himself. 

“No, no. It was something you said, and I’d like clarification on it before we get into anything else.” A.J. presses and he sees Rogers purse his lips in obvious disapproval of A.J. pushing it. “For a statement as clear as that, one name shouldn’t be hard for you to come up with. Name one ‘shady person’ that my father was buddy buddy with Mr. Rogers, or retract the statement.”

“A.J…. I know that Tony did a lot of good things, but there were compromises that he made along the way that sometimes weren’t the best compromises to make.”

“I asked you to name _one_.” A.J. replies to that. “Trying to talk in circles to defend your statement with no proof or facts isn’t going to distract me or confound me into blind agreeance.” There’s no response as Rogers just crosses his arms with that ‘Captain America is displeased with you’ look. “I’m giving you a chance Mr. Rogers to back up your statement with facts. Otherwise, be aware that at the conclusion of this conversation I will be filling out a report of slander against another Avengers team member with malicious intent to undermine others belief or trust in said member without cause.”

“Tony’s given plenty of cause.”

“He has, has he? Interesting. And you haven’t?” A.J. fires back and Rogers looks at him like what A.J.’s just said is so out of left field that he wasn’t prepared to deal with it. “I will be filing that report. Let’s get back on track however. You said you were concerned about Loki. What has Loki done to facilitate this concern?”

“He’s too friendly with you.”

“I’m still not seeing the problem.”

“He’s trying to manipulate you.” Rogers says, his eyes almost begging A.J. to see things his way. There was once a time when Tony bought into that. These days, not so much. “You can’t trust him.”

“Mr. Laufeyson has done nothing that has made me feel uncomfortable in his presence. Nor have I felt any inclination towards duplicity on his part. He has abided by every request the Accords has given him as well as every restriction they have requested.”

“That doesn’t mean anything.” Rogers argues.

“Of the situation at hand, the one stepping outside of their requirements for this mission is not Mr. Laufeyson.” A.J. says and Rogers looks at him.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I have been more than aware of your private meetings with Miss Maximoff, Ms. Romanov and Mr. Barton.” A.J. replies. “Mr. Laufeyson has made references to ‘talks’ that you and him have had in this room, but he’s refused to clarify at this time what those ‘talks’ have entailed.”

“Am I not allowed to talk to my friends now?”

“Is that what you were doing? ‘Talking to your friends’?” A.J. asks. “There was no conversation that dealt with mission parameters, that team members role in said mission or anything else?”

“If there was, then I was just helping.” Rogers says. “I’ve run a few missions over the years A.J.. There’s no harm in letting someone pick up the slack.”

“Pick up the slack?” A.J. repeats. “Have I erred somewhere? Please, pray tell, where that was.” Rogers goes silent. “And, pray tell, inform me why you chose to go behind the team lead’s back to deal with it yourself and not bring it to my attention as you should have? Or if you were concerned that you could not bring it up to me, why you didn't reach out and contact Colonel Rhodes as the chain of command details and demands?”

“I’m just helping.”

“You’re not actually.” A.J. fires back and Rogers looks at him. “You’re doing the opposite of helping. You’re not in contact with the Team Leads which means you know nothing of the information they have or the actions they’re taking in regards to what’s happening here. You’re also not in possession of any of the data that I’ve received and pulled which means that you have no understanding of where we’re at right now and what we know. Tell me where you received the information that would give you a proper handle on the situation at hand by which to make an informed choice when it came to anything mission related?” Rogers doesn’t say anything. “No? Okay, then explain to me how you are helping and not hindering considering all of that?”

“Missions aren’t all computers and numbers A.J.” Rogers presses. “Sometimes it’s gut instinct and good old-fashioned gumption.” He gets a small, amused smile. “I’m rather known for my good old-fashioned habits. They’ve not let me down before.”

“They’ve been letting you down since you woke up.” A.J. retorts, keeping his voice calm despite wanting to shout it from the rooftops. “I will not turn my nose up at ‘gut instincts’, but they cannot all happen in a vacuum. Without data, you can’t have enough information to make even subconscious connections which lead to ‘gut instincts’.” He looks at Rogers. “You were in the military for like a week, right? Before you got pulled to run the enlistment tours?” Rogers’s jaw clenches. “Then you know very well that ‘good old-fashioned gumption’ isn’t going to fly when it comes to undermining a superior officer.”

“It worked pretty well for me when I saved all those soldiers.” Rogers says, irritation clear in his voice.

“That’s because you had Agent Carter and my grandfather-” It feels odd to say that word out loud and mean Howard, “-backing you up and providing you with data, equipment and other necessary pieces that facilitated your ability to even show up at the camp.” A.J. says. “I would caution against ignoring their massive contributions to that situation and repainting it to seem as though you were a lone wolf who performed a minor miracle. Haven’t we already discussed the rewriting of events and the biases that could arise from such a thing?”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.J.'s reaching the end of his rope and most certainly the end of his patience; and Steve is determined to bury his head in the sand and hold onto his rose-tinted view of the situation they're all in. 
> 
> So business as usual! :-)

For a few, brief moments, Steve doesn’t know how to respond to A.J.’s casually spoken barb. He knows that he needs to say something, that he needs to meet this falsehood head on in order to prevent it from digging in further in the brunet’s mind and rotting; but he doesn’t know where to even begin figuring out how handle this. There are just so many things _wrong_ with what A.J.’s just said, so many things wrong about what he’s implied about Steve himself and Steve’s history and accomplishments that figuring out how to correct him feels like a metaphorical minefield of unknown misinformation’s waiting to attack Steve if he so much as makes one single wrong step.

To a point, it’s almost impressive. He’ll give that to Tony; after all Tony always did like being praised, even for things that no one in their right mind would ever think praise should be given for let alone demand it like it was his due. Nat had warned him, back when they were first leaving Wakanda to return to the Compound, that Tony had gone out of his way to start a campaign to undermine Steve’s history and heroism in the hope that the world would turn against Steve as well as to cover up his own shortcomings.

To see it now thought? To see it thrown so blatantly in his face? To see someone who should _know better_ having actually met and interacted with Steve himself, to see him regurgitate it without so much as a flinch or pause is absolutely horrifying.

_What have you done Tony? Was getting back at me so important to you that you had to go this far? That you had to twist and use an innocent in order to lash out at me? Your own son? What kind of friend, of father are you? Did you even hesitate to use him? Did you even pause?_

Nat was wrong. This? This is more than just first mission jitters. This is something else. Something so much more insidious than just anxiety. This is manipulation, plain and simple.

“A.J.” Steve says, gently and calmly so as not to rile up the boy or to give reason for him to perceive him as a threat. “I won’t deny that Peggy and Howard helped, but at the end of the day _I’m_ the one who followed through.” He tells him. “I’m the one who went in, who finished the mission. I’m the one who saved all of those men.” He looks him in the eye. “Do you understand?”

“Understand what?” A.J. asks. “That you’re trying to undermine and take credit for the actions of the rest of the team involved in that situation in order to make yourself seem more impressive and to not have to share the ‘glory’? Yes, I understand that. It’s pretty clear.”

“That’s not what I’m doing.” Steve tries to point out.

“It seems that way from here.” A.J. shrugs, and the shrug is so casually Tony that for a moment Steve feels a brief pang of nostalgia. It’s quickly done away with though when Steve’s forced to confront all of the damage that Tony’s done in the next few seconds, as per usual. “Regardless of what did, or did not happen, back during that mission – that doesn’t change the situation that we are in right now.”

“And what situation is that? Do you even know?” Steve finds himself asking and A.J. gives him a kind of curious, searching look.

“The situation wherein you are not the leader of this mission and yet you have gone behind the back of the acting field leader in order to undermine their authority.” A.J. replies. “The fact that you’ve done it so horribly is either an insult to you or to me. I haven’t fully decided which one it is yet.”

“I’ve led this team for years.”

“That’s irrelevant. You’re not leading them _today._ ” A.J. retorts. “This mission is not one you are leading, regardless of the number of missions you’ve ‘led’ before. Your previous experience ‘leading’ does not mean you take over without authorization from the current leader.”

“So if you make a bad call, I’m just supposed to shut up and let it happen?”

“Have I made a bad call?”

“This is your first mission; you don’t know what it’s really like out here. This isn’t like simulations. You make one wrong move out here and that’s it.” Steve tells him and A.J. sighs like _Steve_ is the one who just isn’t getting it.

“Answer my question please. Have I made a bad call? As of right now, can you pinpoint a call that I have made that is incorrect in any way in regards to the mission and not personal interactions with certain members that have had no positive or negative effects on the mission itself?”

“We’re still in a lull, but that could change.” Steve points out. “A.J, you don’t realize how quickly it can change.”

“True, it can change at the drop of a hat; but you’re acknowledging that I haven’t made a ‘bad call’ as of yet, yes?” A.J. asks and Steve decides he can give him that.

“Not yet, but let us help you keep it that way.” Steve tells him. “Trust me A.J., you don’t want something like that hanging over you for the rest of your life. One wrong step and that’s it, you have to live with it forever.” A.J. shakes his head.

“I’m just curious, if by your own admission that I have not made a bad call and therefore there is no situation where you’ve had to choose to either make a move or ‘shut up and let it happen’ – why you have _already_ taken actions to undermine and usurp authority when there’s no reasonable or actionable reason for it?”

“We’re just trying to help.”

“That is not a good enough excuse to ignore all of the rules. Rules exist for a reason; they are not put in place just to spite you in particular. You are not exempt from them because you feel as though you have special rights or privileges that excuse you from them, or because you feel that your personal ideals or thoughts are more important than them.” A.J. says back to him.

“That’s not what I think. You’re exaggerating the situation and mixing things up in overly general terms to fit a particular narrative.” Steve tells him and a part of him remembers where he heard that sentence before. It was in one of the largest and biggest fights that Tony and Steve had about Ultron after the fact and it was the final words in the fight that had seen Tony walking out the door and never returning until the Accords mess.

_“For the final time, I didn’t make Ultron Steve.” Tony snapped and Steve sighed._

_“He came to life in your workshop. You hid what you were doing from the rest of the team. He used your technology. Help me out here Stark, how is that not making Ultron?”_

_“You know what? This is pointless. You don’t want to listen and you don’t want to hear the truth. You’ve already decided what that is regardless of any facts. You’re exaggerating the situation and mixing things up in overly general terms in order to fit a particular narrative.” Tony retorted. “None of those things prove I did anything, no matter how hard you’re trying to imply that it does and I’m done fighting this pointless fight.”_

There’s a brief moment on A.J.’s face that looks almost surprised and disbelieving in some way. Good, maybe Steve using those big words that Tony liked to try and hide behind will make A.J. _listen_ for once instead of just rehashing other people’s biases. He shakes his head and quietly mutters ‘unbelievable’ under his breath before he looks back at Steve.

“Regardless of how you truly feel, or what I think you feel, the truth is that you have done an action that is outside of your authorities in regards to this mission. I have already filled out the reports and sent recordings to the Avengers leaders. They will have the final say and determination if you have overstepped your bounds with or without due cause.”

“We were just helping you.”

“Perhaps the Avengers leaders will see that wish, perhaps they’ll even make an exception and allow it for consideration in your situation. As it stands, it’s out of both of our hands.”

“So you’ve just been what? Recording us this whole time? Was this even really a mission or just some trick?”

“This is a true mission.” A.J. replies. “But my mission parameters included monitoring the Avengers members still in probation and to maintain a running log on your progress during the entirety of our time here.” A.J. gives him a look. “You were aware of this, or you should have been, since they mentioned that this was still a probationary situation and that you would be monitored and evaluated at the end.” A.J. tilts his head a little. “However, even if this had been a ‘trick’, if you had maintained to your agreed upon requirements then it would have been a worthless one.” A.J. says. “If you had stayed within the lines, for even just _one_ mission, then it would have worked in your benefit to show that you could be trusted to adhere to the changes made and that you could follow orders.”

“I can follow orders A.J..” Steve argues as gently as he can in the face of all of this.

“Then I would recommend that you show that from here on out. Stop with the secret meetings and maybe it might go a little way in your benefit in your after-mission panel with the Avengers and the Accords.” A.J. replies. “Showing that once you _know_ that you’re being recorded and monitored that you can adhere to your parameters might go a little way for you.”

“A.J.” Steve says, taking a firm but kind tone. “We’re not your enemies, no matter how many people might be in your ear telling you we are.” He tells him. “We truly do just want to make sure that this mission goes well for you. We hope that it’s the first of many successful missions that we’ll all go on to undertake together. If you feel like I’ve slighted you somehow, I didn’t mean to and I wish that you had come to me before getting anyone else involved. You say I should have gone to you? Don’t you think that’s a two-way street?” He points out to the boy. “We’re just worried about you. Wanda most of all. She cares a lot about you.” A.J. looks completely caught off guard by that statement, if not slightly panicked. Did he honestly not know? Is this truly so surprising to him? That someone would turn and look at him in that way? “We just don’t want to see you get hurt. Isn’t that what a team, what a family is supposed to do? Watch each other’s backs even when the others might not realize they need it yet?”

“Implying that I don’t know what I need or what’s best for me is not ‘watching out for me’ or ‘caring for me’, it’s insulting and says that I can’t be trusted to understand a situation or even to know myself enough to make those choices.” A.J. says. “You might have pulled that stuff with my father, but be aware that all of that Stark goodwill has gone out of the window these days. I’m not interested in ‘being a team’ with you past actual missions, and in what world were we ever a ‘family’ and where was I when this happened?”

“A team should be a family.”

“No, a team should be a group of individuals who understand how to do their individual jobs properly.” A.J. replies to that. “Being an Avenger is a job, not an adoption.”

“It used to be a family.” Steve points out. “There’s nothing wrong with it being a family unit…I know that there’s a chance that you might not have a lot of…experience with something like that; but once it was. And it worked, and it was great.”

“So great that you violently beat one of those ‘family members’ almost to death? So great that you celebrated someone else following in that thought process and blasting one of their family members through several floors of concrete until he didn’t get up and then _left him there_? Without checking his vitals or if he was okay? Just like you left my father in the same way?” A.J. says and his voice is cold in a way that Steve has never heard it before. He didn’t even know that someone like A.J., someone with that kind of softness about them could even manage such a tone. “And don’t ever talk about my family and what experiences I have regarding it. You lost any right to do so, if you ever even had it, when you covered up my grandparent’s murder and then attempted to murder my father after the years of systematic abuse he endured at your hands.”

“Is that what Tony told you happened?” Steve presses, immediately seeing the opportunity for what it is. The ability to attack one of Tony’s lies and show A.J. the truth of what really happened between his father and the rest of the Avengers. “None of that is true A.J., none of that is how it happened. If that’s what Tony’s told you, you can’t believe him. You don’t understand what it’s really like between Tony and us. He won’t let us go. He can’t.” A.J. lets out an almost disbelieving huff to that.

“ _He_ can’t let _you_ go?” He repeats and he looks both baffled and amused. “I’m sorry, of the two of you who is the one who hasn’t tried to make contact with the other? Who has cut off all communications? Which one of you isn’t the one who pitched himself outside of rooms he thought the other was inside in an attempt to ambush the other? Who is the one who brings up the other in almost every single conversation without fail?” A.J. asks. “Let me be clear about one thing Rogers. If only _one thing_ can make it through your skull and stick the landing out of our entire conversation than let it be this: He’s let you go. _You’re_ the one who can’t seem to do the same.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apparently A.J. has decided he's done with this crap and I can't stop him. [...not really sure I tried all that hard, but who can blame me? ;D ]
> 
> So I know where this all ends, but by goodness is it a wild ride to get there.

All of the rules be damned, it is absolutely cathartic to let those words come out of his mouth. A.J. knows that they’ve been walking on eggshells when it comes to the rogues due to the power shifts and the media attention; and yet right now, he couldn’t be pressed to give a reason why that was so important to do at the cost of staying silent in the face of this bullshit. Steve and the others have already given him everything he needs to have them pulled from this mission and possibly from the Avengers – not that he thinks Rogers or Maximoff will be ousted themselves for what’s happened here, but there is very little chance that Barton and Romanov aren’t kicked to the curb. The rush that goes through A.J. at finally striking back, and being able to say something after so many years of just stomping it down had been amazing. To be able to look Rogers in the eye and stand firm as he challenged him on his whole little ‘only my version of reality where I’m always right and the sole hero of the story exists, and damn anyone who dares to say or think otherwise’ routine had been worth it.

The fact that Rogers would dare throw his own words back at him? That he would dare stand here in front of the person that he thinks is Tony Stark’s son and try to manipulate that person into doubting and hating his own father with no proof but his own word? That word that Rogers always expected to be held higher than any law, religion or creed? That he would try to use Tony Stark’s own words to do it?

A.J. has never believed in hell but right now he almost wishes he did, just so that he could send Rogers there himself.

All of this is just such a level of ‘have you been paying attention to _anything_ that’s actually going on here?’ that’s at play and yet from Rogers’ stance and that almost mocking look on his face that seems both hurt and _pitying_ – he can say that Rogers doesn’t have a fucking clue.

Worse, he doesn’t want to.

Even worse than that – he expects no one else to have a clue either.

On some level, all of this is both an addition and an accumulation of all their conversations before that lends itself to the righteous rage that’s built up in A.J.’s chest that refuses to be stomped down anymore. Once, they made completely out of left field assumptions about the limits that Tony Stark would have gone which included forced experimentation and unwanted body modifications on his own _child_ – and now it’s apparently all come around to where even now, it’s somehow still all about them.

That somehow Tony Stark still eats, shits and breathes Steve Rogers and the rogues, while supposedly lying in his death bed. That somehow Tony Stark is some kind of unseen master manipulator behind the scenes just twirling his evil little mustache while being absolutely obsessed with his old team.

“A.J. listen-” Steve starts and honestly A.J. is so done listening to him. He’s tired of Steve being in his face. He’s tired of having to pretend that his skin doesn’t crawl every time they’re in the same area – and his skin is fucking _synthetic_ so it’s almost an impressive feat.

“No.” He cuts him off, the firmness in his tone leaving no room for arguments and Rogers stares at him surprised. “No, _you_ listen. We will not be discussing nor debating anything regarding Tony Stark anymore.” He tells him. “He is not involved in this mission. He has not been involved in anything regarding your probations or your return. He should not be being brought up in any capacity, and certainly not in an attempt to _use him_ as a smokescreen to hide behind your own breach of protocols.”

“I haven’t ‘breached’ any protocol.” Steve retorts and A.J. lets out an amused huff.

“I guess we’ll see.” He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, settling himself and reaching out to the Network. He fills FRIDAY in on what he needs and he only pulls out once she’s confirmed that she will take care of it all and immediately rouse Rhodey and the other leads for an emergency review of this mission. He opens his eyes again, leveling a look on Rogers. “We should know by tomorrow morning at latest where everyone stands and what this mission will look like going forward.”

“What does that mean?” Steve asks.

“I’ve just sent a request for a mission review. The team leads should be reviewing it within the hour, and we will be informed of where to go next once they come to a decision based on the data provided.” A.J. says. “During this time, I’m putting the mission on temporary hold until an answer is received and each of us will be under room arrest.”

“That seems a little extreme.” Steve says, finding whatever footing it is on whatever ground he thinks he has to stand on. “There was no reason to do that. We were only having a talk. I know that you might not have liked what was being said, but to escalate the whole situation needlessly just to punish me for saying it is a little childish.” Steve crosses his arms. “How is this supposed to foster trust within the team? How are we supposed to know that each time you don’t like what we’re saying that you’re not going to try and pull something like this? That’s not something a leader does.”

Of all the…this moron _still_ hasn’t gotten it yet has he?

“I do have to say that It’s endlessly entertaining to me how I’m only the ‘leader’ in your eyes when I’ve done something that you want to hold up as an example of an attitude or action that I’ve taken that you don’t agree with, but how I’m a ‘kid still learning the ropes’ whenever it’s convenient for you so that you can have an excuse for undermining me as your leader.” A.J. states. “It’s almost as if you’re attempting to use the word ‘leader’ as a manipulation tactic instead of as the title and authority that it represents.”

“That’s not what we’re doing at all.” Steve says, and he sounds frustrated. Like _A.J._ is the one missing some kind of point that should be obvious. “Helping you and guiding you isn’t a manipulation tactic.”

“When was it ever your responsibility to ‘guide’ me?” A.J. fires back.

“We care about you.” Steve replies to that. “With Tony currently away, someone has to look out for you. We’re just doing what he would want.”

A.J. actually blinks a few times at that. Opens his mouth, closes it, and blinks a few times more.

He’s almost afraid at one point that trying to process the craziness of that statement any further than he already has might lead to a complete system crash due to incompatible data. Hell no. He’s not getting blue-screen-of-death’d by Rogers, not today.

“What _he_ would want?” A.J. says slowly and Steve has the gall to do a small nod. “Interesting…That is so very interesting. You know, a part of me is almost curious what you believe he would want looks like. Because I’m baffled that you believe that he would want a group of people who took advantage of his hospitality, who abandoned him so much so that they couldn’t stop to watch a bloody _movie_ with him and eventually turned against him and left him _dying_ in an enemy base without so much as one backwards glance coming in and caring for his son.” He looks Steve in the eye. “I’m even more baffled by how, in your mind, he would want these same people to constantly undermine his relationship with said son and attempt to force themselves on said son in any and all ways possible despite whatever desires that person has expressed about them keeping their distance from him. That he would want these people who believe that he would torture his child, work with terrorists willingly and attempt to single handedly destroy the world while supposedly stalking them with all that free time that he’s never had, to ‘look out for’ his kid.” A.J. levels a look on him. “The rest of me though, is fully aware by this point of how you’re absolutely batshit crazy, and that I don’t give a _flying rats ass_ about what you think, and I give even less credence or care about what you think _Tony Stark_ wants or thinks.” He moves back to the door. “Just so that you’re aware, since we’ve already learned that you feel that rules and orders only exist when you _know_ that you’re being recorded – I will be having FRIDAY monitor the rooms as well as every security camera in the building and in the surrounding areas. So do be aware that if you choose to break room arrest before we receive our orders, then it will be fully documented.”

“So instead of talking to me like an adult, you’re going to lock me in my room?” Steve asks, that disappointed frown still on his face. “Isn’t that a bit childish?” A.J. can’t help the almost sickeningly sweet smile that he turns and gives Steve.

“Well, a _good leader_ should endeavor to never give orders more complicated than their audience can understand.” He says to him. “Don’t you agree?”

“Be careful A.J.” Steve says, that frown still present. “You’re very close to crossing a line that I don’t think you realize you don’t want to cross.”

“No, Mr. Rogers. The one who has crossed a line and doesn’t seem to realize it is _you_.” He grabs the door handle. “I’ll send Maximoff over right away. Make sure to stay inside.”

“Wait, Wanda?” Steve’s voice calls out from behind him. “You mean Loki.”

“No, I mean Miss Maximoff.” A.J. replies, turning to look back at Steve and there’s a look of almost concerned panic that A.J. wants to smack off of Rogers’ face with extreme prejudice.

“Where is Loki staying then?”

“He’ll stay with me.”

“No.” Steve says firmly. “That’s not going to happen.”

“It’s not your call. It’s mine.” A.J. replies, making sure to show that he’s not budging an inch to Steve’s so called ‘command’. “Considering how previous interactions with certain members of this group towards Mr. Laufeyson, I cannot in good conscience ask him to be contained in a room with someone who has shown previous aggressions towards him. Especially considering that said person might be already on edge or compromised in their reactions to the situation at hand and has a history of violent outbursts against teammates. As you can imagine, that’s just asking for trouble.”

“A.J., don’t do this.” Steve pleads with him. “Don’t put yourself at risk just to get back at me.”

“Believe me, Mr. Rogers. There is _nothing_ that I do for your sake.” A.J. retorts and Steve is looking at him like he doesn’t buy it for a second.

“Stealing your own words, this is just asking for trouble.” Steve presses, taking a step forward. “Haven’t you listened to a word I’ve said?”

“Rather annoying, isn’t it? To say things that you feel are important and to be completely ignored.” A.J. fires back and Steve barely even hesitates at the barb. Why would he, that wasn’t A.J. Stark talking to him, it was Tony, and he’s never heard a word that Tony’s ever said if wasn’t something Tony was parroting back to him like a good little puppet.

“Loki is _dangerous_ , A.J..” Steve snaps. “You want to lock me up? Fine, I’ll stay here; but my first priority is to protect you whether you like it or not.” He gives him a look. “And that’s not because it’s my mission but because I care about you.”

…This asshole is really trying to make A.J. go to jail.

That’s the only possible answer for this crap. He’s trying to find the button that’s going to make A.J. snap and try to kill him.

“As it stands, Loki falls in that category too.”

“He doesn’t care about you! You can’t trust him!” Steve actually has the balls to come forward those last couple of steps and grab A.J.’s arm in an attempt to add some kind of physical impression to his words. “Loki is not your friend A.J.. He only cares about how he can use you, don’t make it easy for him. Please!” Steve tries to impart on him with a kind of desperate earnestness. “He’s not some harmless prankster, he tried to destroy the world. He tried to kill your dad!”

That last part leaves Steve’s lips and A.J. stares at him for a second before he twists his arm and shoves Steve back with more force than he should probably have used. However, he’s learned from experience how hard it is to move Steve when the blond decides to get in your space and he’s not dealing with that anymore. Never again.

“ _He’s_ not the only one who tried to kill him.” A.J. snarls and Steve actually stares at him like he’s _got no clue_ what A.J.’s talking about for a brief moment. “He’s just not the one who _succeeded._ ”


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we’ve cut away from the action, but don’t worry! There’s plenty of delusion to go around!

There isn’t much that she knows about Norse mythology, considering that she never really studied it when she was in school and after Pietro and her dropped out there was no reason to learn about such useless things as fairytales. Sure, she’d picked up some stuff along the way after Thor dropped down into their world, Strucker had always seemed interested in the Asgardian’s abilities and how such differences were present in the Asgardian form that weren’t in the human and why such differences existed despite them looking so similar. He’d never really given any credence to the stories though, so very rarely did Wanda. Besides, his fascination led closer to Greek mythology more than anything, and naturally that makes sense with the whole Hydra thing.

She knows that Loki isn’t a god, no matter how much the man clearly wants to be treated like one. He mocks and sneers at everything as if it’s beneath him and lounges around like he’s above it all and can’t be bothered to interact with it all unless it benefits him. He also feels the need to make certain that Wanda knows at every turn that they’re enemies. Wanda wonders sometimes if its one almost deity sensing their equal or their greater in another and having to poke at it in order to try and show anyone looking that they’re not afraid when they so clearly are.

Wanda’s known that Loki was threatened by her from the moment they met. There’s a wide berth that he gives her that he doesn’t really give anyone else, and he speaks to her so infrequently that she thinks that the conversations that they’ve had can be counted on one hand. A part of her wonders if that’s because of how she got her powers, after all the Asgardian trickster claims that the mind stone also influenced his mind back when it was still in the Scepter and even though it rests in Vision’s brow now, a huge amount of its power rests within her. She’s the only one that can push him back, or potentially put him down if he acts out and she knows that they both know it. With the Monster currently unwilling to do his job and fussing about Stark as he always did, Wanda is the one who will be the one forced to stand up against the Asgardian if he makes one move against one of her family…or one of hers.

It’s the other way that Wanda’s been fully aware of Loki’s jealousy and how threatened he is by her. There’s no mistaking how he flirts with A.J., or at least no mistaking it from an outsider’s point of view. A.J. seems to not notice it, but he’s also not noticed Wanda in front of him either waiting to take his hand. It’s rather sweet actually, that level of obliviousness and Wanda can’t help but wonder if he’s ever even had a girlfriend before.

Whatever he has, has not had, or will go on to have; Wanda knows that Loki is not the one who will go on to have a place in A.J.’s future. He won’t be the one that A.J. eventually accepts and turns to, and it’s obvious to her that Loki knows it too. Otherwise why would he continuously poke at her when he comes up with any excuse to put his hands on A.J. like how he did during the ‘training session’, or how he has taken to trying to make A.J. uncomfortable in Wanda’s presence with his over-the-top flirting in her own form? She’ll give that there’s something to be said for Loki, and that’s that he presses hard when he wants something, since he’s always pushing himself into A.J.’s bubble just to speak to him or whatnot but it will never work. The proof of it is how his attempts to create a kind of smear on Wanda’s image in A.J.’s mind backfired on him. A.J. had been subconsciously accepting of the touches and overtures of someone with Wanda’s visage and Wanda’s noticed it as she’s sure Loki has as well. Must be why the trickster did it, to have even just a moment where he could pretend that A.J. would look at him and respond to him the way that he does to Wanda.

Wanda hopes that Loki enjoyed it, that brief glance at an impossible pipedream because it’s never happening. He might have had a chance with someone broken and dirty like Stark if he had been the one here with them, but with someone pure and sweet like A.J.? Never in a million years.

There’s a sigh of irritation that draws Wanda’s attention away from Loki and towards Nat who has been standing alongside the wall closest to the door since A.J. and Steve left to go have a meeting together. Steve had promised Wanda that he would tell A.J. to stay away from Loki in the future and that they won’t let him get away with harassing A.J. like he had at that table with the fruit that he basically forced upon the youngest Stark and made him take from him so as not to cause a scene. Wanda’s grateful that Clint’s the one who went in to save A.J. at that point because if it had been her, things might have gotten a little messy.

“They’re taking too long.” Nat says from where she’s leaning, her fingers tapping against her upper arm from where she’s got her arms crossed and Clint barely gives her a brief glance before he quickly turns his gaze back to monitoring Loki. He’s still playing with that little switchblade that he pulled out of nowhere the moment that A.J. and Steve left the room to go powwow with each other.

“Let them take as long as they need.” Clint replies to her voiced concern. “The two of them are the ones that need to be on the same page before the rest of us can get on it with them too.” Wanda notices how Loki seems to let out a soft huff for a moment that seems vaguely amused as he shakes his head and turns the page of the book in his hand. “Got something to say asshole?” Clint snaps in his direction and Loki doesn’t glance up from his book.

“It’s just endlessly curious how your little minds work.” He says as he continues to read and Clint tenses up at the mention of his mind as everyone in the room knew he would do.

“Clint.” Wanda calls out and he looks at her at her call. She shakes her head lightly and reaches out with her abilities to remind him that she’s here, that a bigger stick is in the room than Loki and that it’s on his side. It makes him calm down almost instantly and he nods his thanks to her. They fall into a kind of uncomfortable silence again for a few minutes before Nat makes another huffing sound.

“I think someone should go check up on them.” She says, pushing away from the wall. “We don’t want there to be a chance that somehow the conversation gets derailed.”

“It’s not going to get derailed; this is Steve.” Clint replies. “He’s much better at the ‘ignore what a total ass-wipe Stark was’ than the rest of us. As long as he avoids that topic for now, then everything will be fine.”

“And how long do you truly believe that topic can be ignored?” Loki asks with a kind of bored drawl, like someone who might be interested if the recipient does something interesting at this point, but is clearly not holding out hope for it. “And how long can you all continue to pretend that you do not see how the tides have long since turned?”

“What tides?” Wanda can’t help but ask and she figures that it’s a good move to draw Loki’s attention to her instead of towards Clint or Nat anyways.

“Oh, not you. Them.” Loki says instantly, eyes still skimming his page. “From what I’ve learned, you’ve always jumped head first into the oceans of delusion and sought to dive as deep down as you possibly can. I meant them, those who once had the love of the world behind them and the devotion of a king beneath their feet.”

“I’m an Avenger too.” She snaps and he shakes his head slightly.

“You came around long after the love died out and was replaced by fear. You became their little mascot of it, I hear. Is that not a major factor in the situation that created the Accords that you despise so much?”

“Don’t engage with him Wanda. Just leave him be.” Nat says with a roll of her eyes and Wanda huffs a bit before sitting back and looking at her nails. She thinks she might ditch the soft pink she has and go for red. She can only pretend to be something she isn’t for so long and a brief hint of her true nature might be nice.

“Ah yes, your usual modus operandi for anyone saying truths you don’t wish to hear.” Loki replies to that with a shake of his head. “Ignore me all you wish; you cannot ignore the storm coming for you.” 

“There is no storm coming for us.” Clint snaps and Loki does actually look up for a brief moment, looking at the three of them slowly in turn before letting out a soft huff of amusement.

“How foolish, you believe that you’ve weathered the storm and that it’s over.” He says with so much mockery in his voice. “Oh no; you’ve merely made it to the eye, and that eye is ever-shrinking.”

“You don’t know a thing about what you’re talking about.” Clint retorts and Loki shrugs.

“I may not know specifics, but even I can see the result of them. Especially when those results are so plain to see around every corner.” He replies. “You believe that the world will forget, that those you have wronged will forgive, that new faces will accept and welcome you with open arms as their predecessors once did. You’re ignoring the fact that the rules of the game changed. Stark changed them a while ago, and you still haven’t noticed.”

“What does that mean?” Wanda asks, unable to turn away at any hint of Stark’s misdeeds even when coming from such an unreliable source.

“' _Because you need us. Yes, the world is a vulnerable place, and yes, we helped make it that way. But we're also the ones best qualified to defend it'."_ Loki quotes and Wanda knows that speech, she’s watched the video of it on YouTube over and over again over the years. Back with Strucker, he’d been entertained by the speech and had claimed that it was a vital misstep on the part of the Avengers and that it would push forward their agenda so much faster; but when she joined the fold she saw it for what it really was – a promise and a threat. The promise that they would be heroes, but a threat to remind them who had the true power here.

"That doesn’t answer my question.” Wanda points out and Loki holds up a finger.

“I’m getting there child, be patient. Good things come to those who wait, or so you silly little humans love to say.” He replies and Wanda wants to throw him into the wall just for her own personal amusement and pleasure. “Once upon a time, the lot of you held all the cards. SHIELD’s secret backing keeping you in power amongst the powerful, Stark’s influence in every other sphere that SHIELD could not control; but you lost that upper hand when you discarded your two most powerful cards and then stood by as one of them turn around and fill the deck with dozens of shiny, new, more powerful cards.” He glances up at the three of them. “Many kingdoms have fallen for less than just blind hubris, and the belief that climbing to the top inherently means that you’ll always stay there. Especially when you didn’t climb up there yourselves, but were pushed by the effort and sacrifice of another.”

“We earned our place, unlike you.” Wanda snaps and Loki lets out a soft laugh.

“Of that you are correct. You’ve certainly _earned_ what’s coming for you.” He replies and Clint stands up from his chair.

“Is that a threat?”

“Merely an observation.” Loki says before giving a kind of curious look to Clint. “Isn’t that something you’re supposed to be good at?”

“Listen here you asshole-” Clint starts and Nat moves quickly to grab his arm and he looks like he might throw her off for a second, but he settles. Loki gives him an expectant look, blinking almost innocently.

“…I’m listening.” He mocks and Clint pulls back an arm and almost launches himself at the other but Nat grabs him more firmly and prevents it. “You’ve not changed. Still so desperate to be given any reason to let out your violent side.” Loki says with a shake of his head and a slight roll of his eyes. “How much longer are you going to pretend in the face of that, that _I_ was the one responsible for how you chose to go about the orders given to you?”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Clint snarls dangerously and Loki gives him a bored glance.

“It means that I said ‘fetch’. _You’re_ the one who decided that ‘fetch’ meant ‘murder’.”

“I’ll kill him.” Clint snaps as he moves forward and Nat calls out a sharp cry of Wanda’s name and Wanda quickly soothes Clint’s temper. The atmosphere in the room is tense for a few moments before the three of them level glares upon the fourth person there and he seems amused by it all. “You don’t know anything.” Clint throws at him before he turns and leaves the room, slamming the door behind him as he goes. Nat lets out some kind of curse in Russian before she looks at Wanda.

“Keep him here, don’t do anything that he can use against you.” She tells her, not even fully waiting for Wanda’s nod before she takes off after the archer. The two of them sit in awkward silence for a bit, a silence that Loki pretends doesn’t exist, before Wanda decides to get a threat out.

“If you touch A.J. again, I’ll rip your arm off.” She warns him and Loki gives her an amused glance. She knows that he’s hiding behind the amusement, she knows that he has to be feeling the weight of the threat that she’s just leveled.

“I believe that the one who decides who can and who cannot touch them, is the young Stark himself and not random third parties.”

“I’m not a random third party.”

“Oh? And who is it you think you are to him?” Loki asks. “His ally? His teammate? His friend?” He gets a rather cruel looking smirk. “His lover?” She clenches her fists.

“Who A.J. and I are to each other is none of your business.”

“As is it none of yours how he and I interact.” Loki throws back.

“It’s different, don’t pretend that you don’t know that it’s different.” Wanda fires right back at him and he gives her a look.

“And how precisely is it different? I’m breathless to hear this explanation.”

“A.J. and I are close, you two aren’t.” She says and Loki actually tosses his head back and laughs.

“’Close’ she says.” He mutters with a shake of his head before he looks at her. “Truly? You are? My mistake then, as I was under the impression that the young Stark was no closer to you than he was to any other member of your little group; which is to say ‘not close at all’ in case you were unaware.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means, that you should start considering other options and stop listening to the good Captain and other little yes men.” Loki replies. “He isn’t going to accept you, and he isn’t going to help keep you all together. You should start planning your eventual departure from him, because it’s inevitable.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're getting closer to the end, and the crazy train just keeps chugging along.

Steve has the gall to turn white as a sheet at the thrown out remembrance of the situation that he left Tony in and A.J. just wants to punch him in the face for it.

“Tony’s not dead.” Steve says, his voice trying to come out sure and cracking pathetically. “I didn’t kill him.” A.J. tilts his head a little as he looks at the blond, rage building under his skin at the realization of what Steve might be truly upset about.

“Which part are you more freaked out about? That he’s dead or that you’re a murderer?” A.J. presses and Steve takes a step back from him.

“I’m not a murderer.” He says and at least that’s a little firmer than the first attempt.

“So the second part then.” A.J. says with a nod. “Of course, why am I not surprised?”

“I didn’t kill him.”

“Do you know how many times he flatlined?” A.J. asks, looking at Steve. He takes a small step towards him and Steve steps back. “Do you know how much internal damage there was? How many broken ribs? How badly cracked his sternum was? Head trauma?” Another step and another step back. “Do you know how long he laid there before help came? Help that _you didn’t send_?” Steve shakes his head. “Do you know what happens to metal in subzero temperatures? It loses heat and starts to match the ambient temperature around it. Do you know what that temperature was inside the base? Do you know how skin responds to metal that freezes? Do you know how heavy and cumbersome the armor is without severe chest and shoulder injuries to get off? Now picture it with all of the above. Picture it with it’s power source destroyed.”

“I didn’t kill him.” Steve seems to feel the need to repeat.

“You’ve been trying to kill every part of him that you could get your hands on since the day you met.” A.J. says to Rogers, and he’s surprised with how soft, almost conversational, it comes out. “You tried to kill his dreams, his trust, his hope. Tell me one part of Tony Stark you didn’t get your hands on and immediately try to destroy. The fact that he’s still here, that he still draws breath is a spit in your face Rogers, and a spit in the face of everything you tried to do to break him.” He feels like his chest is tight, like he needs to take a deep breath and get out of here before he does something foolish. “The Tony Stark you knew died in that base. He didn’t make it back; but despite your best attempts that doesn’t mean that his story is over. However, like Rhodey told you once before – he died on that operating table over and over again and it was _your fault_. No one else but **_yours_**.”

“A.J. I’m…”

“You’re what Steve? You’re not sorry, we both know that. What are you then? Huh? A ‘good man’? What an interesting litmus test for such a designation.” A.J. looks at Steve with a sneer that he doesn’t even try to contain. “You’re a ‘good man’. Hah. I’ve never heard something more absurd in my entire life.” A.J. turns and walks to the door, barely managing not to rip it open. Steve wisely doesn’t follow after him and all A.J. can think of is that he hopes that Rogers chokes on whatever self-serving pity he’s feeling right now. Goodness knows that he’s not feeling guilt. There’d have to be a shred of humanity and empathy left behind in him for that and Steve Rogers has proven himself to have plenty of characteristics over the years but those two aren’t high on the list, and they’re non-existent insofar as Tony Stark is concerned.

He’s barely opened the door to the other room before he’s greeted with a sight that makes him want to both pull his hair out and bang his head against the wall – or more accurately, it’s the lack of what he sees that causes that reaction.

“A.J.?” Wanda asks, sliding to the edge of the bed with a look of concern on her face.

“Where are Romanov and Barton?” He asks, not ready to deal with any more ‘team’ crap from any of them, and certainly not from the witch.

“Clint needed some fresh air and Nat went with him.” Wanda says and A.J. shakes his head.

“Didn’t I say to remain here?” He asks and Wanda doesn’t say anything to that. A.J. notes how Loki’s looking at him with those eyes that always see more than anyone wants him to see and A.J. wonders if he’s seeing the rage of a dead man boiling under the surface of A.J.’s skin. Is he seeing the vengeful ghost inside of this shell that wants to yell and scream to the sky? Wanda stands and comes over to him, her eyes roaming over his face and trying to make sense of whatever she sees there. Without the ability to just know, she’s clearly not adept at reading or picking up on body language.

“He just needed a minute or two.” She says gently. “Some people were poking at all the buttons the second you left.” She sends a quick glare in Loki’s direction and Loki shakes his head.

“Not I, and certainly not ‘right when you left’.” Loki replies to the accusation. “I merely responded to their questions and made obvious observations that a child should be able to discern about our current situation. Apparently, that was too much for some people to handle.”

“You called Clint a murderer.” Wanda snaps and A.J. wants to laugh and he wants to cry and he wants everyone to go away and he wants to go home. Seems like everyone was getting called out on their shit tonight. How fun.

“He was operating under the false impression that I _made_ him kill those people. I merely told him that he was incorrect. His rather over-the-top reaction only goes to show that he knows what I said was truth, whether he likes it or not.” God he’s so tired, one would think that he shouldn’t even be able to be this tired anymore in this form and yet his mind is exhausted. He closes his eyes and opens up the Network, brushing slightly against FRIDAY who expresses concern for whatever it is she feels when their two programs touch. She’s kept an eye on the surrounding area, as he’s requested since the report was filed and she informs him that Natasha and Clint have left the building and the surrounding areas, disappearing off of security footage only a few minutes after leaving the room. A.J. wants to shake his head, but instead he files it away as additional information for the Leads, thanks FRIDAY and pulls out. Honestly, he’s never been as connected to the Network as much as he has been during this mission in an attempt to try and keep tabs on people who were supposed to be keeping tabs on him.

He opens his eyes with a small sigh before he turns to the woman at his side.

“Wanda, go to Rogers room. You’ll be bunking there tonight. Grab whatever you feel that you need and head on over.” He tells her and he notices how she flinches a little, her eyes going wide and he feels like he’s about to get yet another talk about ‘oh no A.J., you can’t be around Loki, he’s _dangerous_ ’ and truly he’s not in the mood right now. “You know what room it is right?”

“I’m staying.” She says, getting that stubborn sort of pout to her lips that she always took with Rogers and the others. “With you.” She makes to reach for his hand and he pulls it back immediately before she can touch him.

“You’ll be staying with Rogers, that’s non-negotiable.” A.J. replies. “You’re to remain in that room with him until I come to report back to you about the Avenger Leads decision on our current situation.”

“Where will you be?”

“Right here.”

“And _him_?” She makes a motion with her chin towards Loki.

“He’ll be here with me.”

“I have no qualms about that.” Loki drawls, leaning back in his chair and crossing his legs before flipping the page of the book in his hands.

“I do.” Wanda snaps. “A.J., let me stay with you.”

“I’ve given an order Miss Maximoff.” A.J. replies to that and she stares at him surprised. “Get what you need and move on over.”

“Why…?” She asks, and he wants to sigh but he holds it back.

“For team safety and cohesion.” A.J. says.

“You’re safest with me.” She says like it’s so obvious, reaching out for his hand again. He still doesn’t let her touch him and she looks confused. “You know you’re safest with me.”

“In theory, I should be safe with any member of this team.” A.J. says. “That includes Loki.”

“A.J….” Wanda says softly. “Don’t send me away. Let me stay here with you. At your side. That’s the only place I want to be.” She’s looking at him with such a soulful look.

That’s the moment when the universe seems to decide to let A.J. know that he’s living in a horror movie because for the first time certain actions and behaviors on the witch’s part make sense.

They make a terrifying, horrible, _disgusting_ kind of sense.

Now the conversations, and the comments, and the touches, and the _underwear_ and the rest of it all make sense and he wishes that he could just delete that information out of his brain. Download it onto a USB or something and take a hammer to it until it was ground to dust.

“You need to go.” A.J. fights out past the horror. “Rogers is waiting. He knows you’re coming. Don’t keep him waiting.”

“I’m not going.” Wanda says and A.J. takes a full step back from her when she does the reach out thing again, not just moving his arm away but a full body retreat. “I’m not leaving you here with him.”

“We are still on mission, and I’ve given you an order.” A.J. gets out. “Don’t make me tell you again, otherwise I’ll have to write you up for insubordination.”

“You won’t do that.” She says with a small shake of her head and a tiny smile like him even saying that he’d do something to punish her was just hilarious.

“I’m already sending in a report about certain…situations that have occurred in this room between the two of us, and I will not hesitate to add this onto it if you continue to push it.” A.J. warns her and she looks at him like she doesn’t understand why he’s being this way.

“Did Steve upset you?” She asks, her voice going soft and kind again and before A.J. can say anything to that, Loki snaps his book closed.

“For Odin’s sake.” He says with exasperation clear in his tone. “He has asked you to leave. He is your commanding officer is he not? Or has that changed while none of us outside of your little group were aware of it?” Wanda turns and there’s the warnings that pop up in his mind that warn him of her magic in the area. They’re sensors that he’s had on twenty-four seven since they started rooming here and he immediately steps in-between Loki and Wanda.

“Wanda stand down.” He snaps and she just blinks at him like she doesn’t understand why he’s gotten in her way. “You will not use your powers on a non-combatant.”

“He’s not-”

“He is not actively attacking you or anyone else. There is no danger that he is creating in this situation that requires any action to be taken against him. You will stand down.”

“He’s trying to manipulate you. That’s what he’s been doing from the start!” She says before looking over his shoulder at the Asgardian. “He’s playing with your emotions. With your feelings.”

“Then go to the other room and use Rogers’ computer to write up a report about it if you feel that I am somehow compromised or unfit to make decisions.”

“I don’t want to do that A.J.. I don’t want you to get in trouble.” She says with a shake of her head. “Is that what you want?” She asks and A.J. looks her right in the eyes.

“I want you to leave.” He says firmly and she looks like he’s just slapped her. “I want you to get your things, and go to Rogers room and stay there until the verdict comes down the pipeline. That’s what I want.”


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we're at the end of this one!!!! (throws confetti - falls over dead)
> 
> THANK YOU FOR ALL THE AMAZING REVIEWS AND RESPONSES!!! Honestly guys, all my love and I can't wait to know your parting thoughts! <3 
> 
> Until next time!

It takes almost an hour for Wanda’s tears to subside and for her misery to wind down enough for Steve to try and get through to her. The young Sokovian girl had come into the room shortly after A.J. had left in a fit of rage looking absolutely confused and devastated. It had taken several times of trying to hear past her muffled words and tears before Steve got the gist of what went down in the other room. Apparently A.J. had lashed out at Wanda unnecessarily before sending her Steve’s way.

For almost the hundredth time that night, Steve honestly has to fight himself from getting up and going over to the other room and making A.J. sit down and listen. He’s at war with himself about not going to go get Clint and heading over to that room to go put their foot down and to nip this irresponsible and childish behavior in the bud before it had a chance to settle in and become a bad habit. After all, there was absolutely _no reason_ why A.J. should have lashed out at Wanda like he had, and certainly not if the only reason was just because Steve had made him a little upset. Wanda had been nothing but good to him. Had only ever wanted the best for him and to make sure that he was healthy and happy and honestly A.J. owed her a lot more than what he just gave her. How hard would it be to treat the girl who loved him with the same basic decency and respect that she treated him with regardless of the circumstances that surrounded them? Even if he didn’t have any good role models for how healthy grown-up relationships worked, even he should know better than to behave like this; and if he truly didn’t, then by God Steve and the others would make certain that he learned it.

You didn’t spit on the ones you loved because it was easy and convenient and because you knew that they’d forgive you and welcome you back later. Wanda deserved better. The team deserved better. Steve knew that A.J. could _be_ better. Which meant that there was no way that they were going to let this behavior slide.

Despite it all though, Steve can’t help but feel worry for A.J., heavy and deep in his gut. Across the hall, the young boy was alone with a psychopath who enjoyed toying with people and manipulating them into horrible situations and scenarios. How easy would it be for Loki to take advantage of A.J.’s current mindset and do irreversible damage to the boy? Beyond all of that, what if Loki was hurting him right now? They’d be none the wiser. Just doors away and unable to come to his aid because he’d sent them away and locked them in their rooms like children. What if A.J. was being tortured right now? Loki using his magic to harm the youngest Stark just to get back at them. This was a perfect situation handed to him almost as if on a silver platter. What if he did something untold towards the boy and the rest of them didn’t find out till morning when A.J. inevitably never came around to poke his head in and apologize for his behavior the night before and all of them were forced to seek him out instead and find him in whatever state Loki saw fit to leave him in?

The idea horrifies and concerns Steve and yet he doesn’t know what to do with it. He’s promised to protect A.J., but protecting A.J. from himself when he’s using all of this red tape that Tony’s created to tie their hands to prevent it is beyond frustrating.

“Shh…shh.” Steve whispers softly to Wanda, rubbing her back and trying to think soothing and calming thoughts instead of the dark ones that his mind has started running with. “He didn’t mean it. I promise he didn’t mean it.” She sniffles against his chest. “I’m so sorry Wanda. I’m the one who got him all riled up, none of that was your fault. He shouldn’t have taken it out on you.”

“He sent me away.” She hiccups softly. “He said he didn’t want me touching him and to leave.”

“He just meant right now.” Steve assures her, continuing the comforting circles on her back. “Hey, think about it. You know how sometimes when you’re in a bad mood and you don’t want anyone touching or bothering you?” She nods piteously against his chest. “That’s just what he’s doing right now. He’s not saying ‘never’, he’s just saying that he needed space right now.” Steve pushes Wanda back a little and gets the young girl to look at him. “Come on, you know A.J.. He’d be kicking himself right now if he realized that he made you feel this way.”

“Then why didn’t he let me stay?”

“He was in a bad place, maybe he just didn’t want you to see him like that.” Steve reasons. “I got him all up on edge when I mentioned Tony. You know how he gets whenever one of us bring him up. I shouldn’t have done it, and he shouldn’t have taken it out on you.” He wipes at the tears on Wanda’s cheeks. “Watch, bet you anything, tomorrow morning he’s going to be so sorry for what he said to you and he’s going to be tripping over himself to make it up to you. You’ll see.” He taps her nose lightly and smiles at her. “Don’t let him off too easy though. Make sure he knows that he doesn’t get to get away with acting like this. No matter how much you love him, you make sure he knows that you’re not going to put up with that. Okay?” She takes a second before rubbing at her eyes and nodding. “There we go. Now, go wash your face and get ready for bed. Sooner the morning comes, the sooner all this can be behind us.”

-+-

Its first thing in the morning when the knock comes at the door. A.J. glances over at it before quickly opening into the Extremis Network to see who is in the hallway and the image that meets him makes all of the tension of the past few days lift and the weight on his shoulders already feels like it’s a bad memory. He immediately goes over to the door and opens it, feeling the soft smile spread on his face as he sees Vision in his human disguise standing on the other side of it.

“Victor.” A.J. greets, using his human name and Vision immediately presses forward, checking over A.J., fussing in a way that makes A.J. let out a rather fond sounding huff.

“Are you well?” He asks, and A.J. feels the gentle prod of the other android’s systems against his and he nods, reaching out and letting the connection open between them. Memories flow along the connection of what he’s just been through: Rogers’ annoying bullheadedness, Barton’s and Romanov’s double agent bullshit, the Rogue Avengers unrepentant hatred towards his previous self and the absolute horror that was learning about Wanda’s ‘feelings’ for him. He’s mollified a little by the complete bafflement and frustrated rage that Vision feels on his behalf at all of it before they both pull out of their internal conversation.

“I’m glad you’re here.” A.J. says and he doesn’t even try to hide how relieved he sounds.

“I am not the only one who has come.” Vision says, glancing over A.J.’s shoulder to where Loki is sitting and he inclines to the Asgardian. “Mr. Laufeyson.” He greets and A.J. guesses that Loki must give some kind of return acknowledgment to the greeting that he doesn’t see, but Vision turns back to him. “Colonel Rhodes and Doctor Strange have both arrived to take the others back to the Compound where they will be held until a full investigation into this mission can be done.”

“A full investigation?” A.J. asks. “Is what I sent not enough?”

“What you sent was more than enough for immediate action to be taken.” Vision says with a shake of his head. “A speedy decision was determined to be the best course of action in this case and a full panel review to come at a later date. What you have sent has gotten their temporary field access revoked and their Avengers status put back under review.”

“Oh. So what happens now? Do we all go back?” A.J. asks and Vision shakes his head.

“No.” He replies. “I will remain with you and Mr. Laufeyson, and we will complete your mission.”

“Oh?”

“It was determined that the mission should not suffer any more than it already has.” Vision replies.

“I’m surprised you’re the one here for that.” A.J. says. “Not that I’m unhappy about it, it’s just that I thought that you were all the way over in London.”

“…FRIDAY contacted me last night, expressing concern about what was occurring here after your last communication.” Vision says after a brief pause. “I decided to volunteer to come and step into the blank space left by the others.” It takes A.J. less than ten seconds to read between the lines, and it warms something inside of him. FRIDAY was worried and reached out to Vision who decided to fly back to the states immediately to come check in on him.

“Thank you.” A.J. says. “I’m glad you’re here. _So_ glad you’re here. Maybe with just the three of us we can actually get something done.” There’s another knock on the door and A.J. does a quick check before breaking away from Vision to go open it. Rhodey enters the room much like Vision had, immediately checking him over.

“That report was fucking bullshit. Are you okay?” He asks and A.J. lets out a soft laugh before he nods and Rhodey looks like he’s been holding his breath for a while because it all seems to come out of him in one big whoosh. “Strange has already taken everyone back to the Compound, and he should be back any minute now for me. I wanted a chance to come check in on you before I left.” A.J. nods in understanding.

“Thank you.” He looks at Rhodey. “Just for curiosities sake, what did you think when you saw the report?”

“Before or after I said ‘oh _hell fucking no_ ’ and JOCASTA and I got the entire Council on the phone, time zones be damned?” Rhodey asks and A.J. laughs.

“Thanks Rhodey.”

“Do you want to call of this mission? The Council has agreed that they understand if you wish to pull out. We can attempt this at a later time.”

“No. A.I.M. is still doing shady shit here and I want to stop them. That hasn’t changed, no matter what they’ve thrown at me.” A.J. replies. “Besides, between Loki and Viz, I’m golden. Plus I think I’m close now, you saw the latest data right?”

“Yeah, we were going to give the green light to check in on it before the rest of that crap came down the pipeline.” Rhodey says and A.J. nods to himself. He figured as much. There’s a brief warning before a portal opens in the room and Strange steps out.

“Didn’t feel like using the door.” He says with a shrug before he motions to the portal. “Colonel?”

“Everyone where they’re supposed to be?” Rhodey asks and Strange nods. “Alright. A.J….be _careful_.” He gives him a firm one-armed hug before heading across with Strange and the portal fades away.

“Well…lets get ready for the day then and get cracking down on this cockroach.” A.J. says, clapping his hands together before he gets two separate agreements from the others in the room.

-+-

Steve stands the minute that Ross comes into the conference room where he’s been waiting for any kind of news about what’s going on. Rhodes and Strange had just shown up out of nowhere, portaling them back to the Compound and putting them in individual conference rooms where they were told to wait until a Council representative came to speak with them.

“Mr. Ross.” Steve greets, coming over and shaking the man’s hand. Everett doesn’t look as pleased to see Steve as he usually is and that doesn’t bode well for whatever all of this is. Steve doesn’t doubt that someone – perhaps Tony, perhaps Rhodes – blew whatever it was that A.J. filed on them out of proportion and Steve is hoping that the Council was able to see the truth and not be blinded by whatever those reports had said. “How are things?”

“Not good Captain Rogers.” Ross says, motioning to the chairs at the table and the two of them take a seat. “You have to be aware that things…are not good.”

“I don’t really know anything that’s going on.” Steve says with a shake of his head. “Nobody’s told us anything.”

“The Council has reviewed the information that Mr. Stark has sent in regarding the mission.” Ross says and Steve nods along with him. “And things…have become rather complicated.”

“Complicated? Complicated how?”

“Were you aware that Mr. Barton and Ms. Romanov were in constant contact with a third party that were not Avengers approved, feeding them information about the mission?” Ross asks and Steve frowns as he shakes his head.

“No? That’s news to me.” He says and Ross nods like he’s pleased to hear that.

“Yes, well as you can imagine…that doesn’t look good.”

“Are we sure that they were sharing information?” Steve asks and Ross nods.

“Mr. Stark has records.”

“What kinds of records?”

“There are a few of Ms. Romanov’s attempts to download spyware on the computer systems that he was using so that a third party could monitor what was being done on them.” Ross states. “Thankfully, Mr. Stark was immediately aware of all attempts and maintained proper security on all of your equipment.”

“I don’t believe that Nat would endanger the mission like that.” Steve says as earnestly as he can, even though he knows that’s a lie. He wouldn’t actually be surprised to learn that Nat and Clint were still working for Fury.

“Unfortunately, their constant disappearances as well as untraceable phone calls and texts have put them in hot water.” Ross states with a shake of his head. “There really is no way to spin this information as anything else other than sabotage and espionage.” Ross gives him a look. “They’ve already been released from the Avengers. With no ability to return.”

“What?” Steve says, wanting to jump out of his chair. “That’s…that’s a little extreme! Shouldn’t there be a warning or something before you just kick people off?” Steve demands and Ross shakes his head.

“When it comes to something like this, it was determined that they were double agents and a threat to the Avengers themselves. Each team lead voted for their expulsion and the Council was unanimous as well.” Ross tries to give him a friendly smile. “There are other areas that they might get picked up by, you might still see them and work with them in the future.”

“But not as Avengers?”

“No, not as Avengers.” Ross agrees and Steve feels himself sink in his chair, letting that wash over him for a few minutes. He sits up immediately when a thought hits him. “What about Wanda? What happened to Wanda?”

“She’s dealing with her own disciplinary actions, but that’s it. She’s been pulled off of active duty and will remain at the Compound.”

“Disciplinary actions? What kind of disciplinary actions? She didn’t do anything wrong.”

“There was actually a sexual harassment case filed against her from Mr. Stark.” Ross says and Steve stares at him like he’s crazy. “There were certain…actions and behaviors that Miss Maximoff engaged in during her close quarter requirements with Mr. Stark that made him very uncomfortable and was determined by the Colonel as out of line.”

“So Rhodes is responsible for the ‘sexual harassment’ thing?” Steve says, leaning back once more and wanting to shake his head. Were they seriously so determined to keep Wanda and A.J. apart as to do something like this? Those poor kids. The crap that they were going to have to deal with. “Okay, that’s…not good, but okay. What about me?”

“That’s where things get tricky again.” Ross says carefully. “You’ve been given two strikes and your probation period extended.”

“What? Why?”

“Your attempts to overtake the leadership position in the field.” Ross answers. “Mr. Stark had plenty of data showing that you’d overstepped your authorities and were in contempt of your agreement with the Council.”

“I was just trying to help.”

“…even so.” Ross says. “Good intentions only go so far. You still acted out of line.” Ross sighs. “It was determined that a lot of your actions were understandable considering Mr. Stark’s youth and lack of leadership experience and that we doubted that there was any malicious intention in the action, but nonetheless the action was still wrong and therefore must be disciplined.” Ross reaches out and pats his arm. “But this is good news. It’s just added time. I’m sure that you’ll bounce right back from this.”

“…but half of my team is gone now.” Steve says, sadness in his voice. “It’s just Wanda, A.J. and me now.”

“I’m sorry.” Ross says. “I tried everything I could, but there was no getting around it. There was too much evidence and too much history.” Steve nods lightly at that.

“No, I understand. Thank you.” He looks at Ross. “What about Loki?”

“What about him?”

“Has he been written up too?”

“No?” Ross says with a frown. “Mr. Stark filed nothing against him. Outside of a few moments of vocal antagonism.” Ross frowns. “Which isn’t enough to cause any interplanetary issues considering Mr. Laufeyson’s status as a prince of Asgard who has agreed to aid us.”

“So Nat and Clint are gone, but Loki gets to stay?” Steve asks and Ross nods.

“I’m sorry again.” He says and Steve runs a hand through his hair.

“No that’s fine. Thank you.” He says as his mind starts running over ideas. They’re going to need a plan going forward if they’re going to manage to salvage anything that’s happening here.

Once, Steve might have thought that they’d be forced to play fair with their little Council and Accords hanging over them all, now he knows better. Tony’s team isn’t looking to let old bygones be bygones and Steve was foolish enough to let his guard down and let them rip the rug out from underneath all of them.

They might have won this time, but it wouldn’t happen again.

He was sure of it.

**Author's Note:**

> Please no comments of a critiquing or negative nature. Thank you for understanding.


End file.
